Untraveled Road (Kanto)
by MidnightJD1
Summary: You want to be the best? You got to beat the best. Travelling down the common road isn't exactly on the agenda for our duo of Ash and Leaf. No, the Untraveled Road is the one being pursued here. There's a reason it's been left Untraveled, it's dark, it's lonely, it has secrets, it's full of mystery, it's not fun. Nobody ever asked for this journey.
1. Chapter I: The End Is Where We Begin

**A/N: Hey! Hello people of the fan fiction world! How ya' doin?! MidnightJD here and I am back with a brand new story, or more or less a remake of my Pokémon: Rise to a Master story. Now in the last story I didn't give much background information as to why certain things were how they were, and frankly I didn't know myself and just wanted them to be that way, but now I am back with a better story that should fill in most of the plot holes that my previous story had and it should overall be 10x better. I'm going to really enjoy writing this story and I think you guys will really enjoy reading this story as well!**

 **Now I read a lot of fan fiction, and I mean A LOT of fan fiction, just go through my favorites folder if you want, I think I have over 150 stories in there, all of which are great and a lot of them have given me a couple ideas for my story here, I'm not meaning to offend anyone by having a similar situation happen. I ALWAYS put my own twist on things, so if you see an event that might be really similar to another story's event, just remember that fan fiction is a big site and I can't go through all 89,000+ current Pokémon stories, plus the millions more for everything else. This site is huge and I won't always know if someone did this situation or not, but I always like to put things into my own way and that's how this story will work.**

 **Perhaps I should give a couple tid bits of information about this story revolving Ash and Leaf. I feel like I could give these pieces of information out there and no one will blame me for it. If you do, I won't care, I'll only have a good laugh about it and move on.**

 **1\. Ash will age! HOLY S***, what is this?! Ash aging? This must be heaven! Yes I will have Ash age in this story, I'm also going to be putting time stamps along with the story (e.g April 9th, 2007) so it feels like a real timeline and so you guys won't get confused on how it all works or how much time has passed in between, etc. I got you guys covered.**

 **2\. Ash and Leaf will be catching Pokémon and I mean they WILL be catching quite some Pokémon. I always hated the fact that Ash only got 5-6 Pokémon per region (excluding Unova and Kanto), I mean yeah they get better development that way, but that's way too little considering how many Pokémon they add each generation, so they'll both be getting quite a number of Pokémon, not too many to where they'll be neglected later, but enough to satisfy everyone and hopefully get some of your favorite Pokémon in there (I said too much, crap).**

 **3\. If all goes to plan and I don't lose motivation for this story, then we'll be traveling from Kanto to Alola, and whatever region is afterwards, assuming the story isn't complete by then, (which it probably won't considering how I write and how I procrastinate a lot) but I'm not having Ash travel in order like he did in the anime, (Kanto to Johto to Hoenn, etc.) no, I'm going in my own order. The first region will be Kanto, but the next I won't reveal until this arc is almost done, I think you guys will like my pick, or maybe not and you'll hate me for the rest of your lives. I sure hope its the former!**

 **4\. Ash and Leaf will Train, and I mean they WILL Train themselves and their Pokémon. I've only read a couple of stories actually think out the process of how Ash trains. I'm not sure where people get the philosophy that just a quick rundown will do readers good, those who just read to read, maybe. But for those who are looking for those rare great stories where it explains what happens, even the small details, will know a lot of stories in this site have potential, but just don't execute the idea thoughtfully and just be lazy. I'm going to try my best to explain what Ash and Leaf do, it won't be SUPER long, but enough to satisfy everyone and so people don't get lost and don't skip it.**

 **5\. Most importantly, Ash will be mature in this story. I don't care what people say when they think he has to be a complete idiot who just starts out, this is my story, I'll write it how I want it. He's going to be strong, very strong as a trainer since that is his dream, to become a Pokémon Master. He isn't going to be totally OP at first like some stories I've read, but rather grow at a good pace, he will lose some battles, but he's overall going to be a lot better than how most trainers start out.**

 **6\. I plan to go all out with OC's in this story, rival OC's, friendly OC's, not too many where you will get lost, but enough to where you guys will REALLY enjoy it whenever they appear. So far, I have three OC's planned out for future events and you guys will understand them as characters and I might have some fun getting you guys to hate one of them. I haven't actually decided if I will do it yet, if it works though, I made a good OC that did its job. Though if you guys want to send in an OC yourself, I might just use him/her/it. I'll give full credit to the OC creator and it should be good fun. So send them in if you guys want.**

 **Before the final draft was finished, I had like three more things here that would have spoiled things for everybody and they aren't as cliché as you might think and I would have punched myself if people lost interest because I made a mistake putting random facts about my story in the very beginning, so luckily I fixed that. Don't want to get hasty now do we?**

 **If anyone didn't read all that, they might get lost somewhere, this is good general knowledge to know about my story. Anything more and I might just spoil it for you all.**

 **As always I love constructive criticism on my stories, about what I can do to improve on my way to completing hopefully one of the best stories out there. If you flame, I will laugh at your horrible attempt to discourage me and move onto the next review, plain and simple. Also can you guys PLEASE say more than just "Nice Chapter, I liked it." Or things along that nature, I mean yeah I guess people liked the chapter, but I didn't get a good honest opinion on what they REALLY thought. So at least make those reviews more than 15 words so I know I'm doing a good job.**

 **But yeah after a really long A/N, I finally got all my crazy thoughts out of my brain for this beginning, I'm finally going to be starting this story, I HOPE YOU ENJOY THE LONG ROAD AHEAD.**

* * *

 **Midnight: GO BACK UP AND READ THE BEGINNING, I KNOW YOU SKIPPED THROUGH ALL OF IT. I BET YOU THOUGHT YOU'D FIND THE STORY IN THIS SECTION! NOPE! GO BACK UP AND READ THE A/N! NOW!**

 **JD: If you have read it, then please ignore this angry rant of my other self complaining about how nobody reads pre A/N.**

 **Midnight: I HATE IT WHEN PEOPLE DON'T READ THE A/N, THERE'S IMPORTANT INFO UP THERE!**

 **JD: _*sigh*_**

 **Chapter I: The End Is Where We Begin**

 _ **May 22nd, 2002.**_

30,000 feet above the ground of the Kanto region, a commercial plane was flying high in the sky. This airplane was bigger than usual as it carried about five hundred and fifty passengers and about couple thousand pounds of cargo. The plane model was a Boeing 777, it consisted of a primary white and blue color on its exterior with a Salamence decal decked on the back of the plane to signal the plane belonged to Salamence Airlines. Flight number 2749 was currently on a trip from Kanto's neighbor, Johto, to the far away region of Alola, currently transporting mostly vacationers and a few upcoming trainers going there to challenge the trails, though it was about 95% vacationers.

The flight has been in the air for about an hour and everything has been running smooth so far. People who weren't chatting amongst themselves were either sleeping or...well just sleeping. Up front inside the cockpit, the two pilots were maintaining control over the plane, just like they have done for years; they were experts in this field, hence why they were able to maintain such a big plane.

"Attention folks, this is your captain speaking. Flight number 2749 has just entered your region's neighbor, the Kanto region. This flight from Goldenrod City, Johto to Hau'oli City, Alola, is still another 11 hours ahead so please make yourself comfortable and we'll be arriving in Hau'oli at 10 AM, Alolan time. That is all." The captain put down his microphone to the plane speaker and sighed as he got back to his duties and helped maintain flight number 2749.

His partner asked. "Does flying ever get old for you Dave?" 'Dave's' partner asked him.

Dave smiled as he replied. "Honestly Athelia, not really. When I was a boy, I was always one wanting to fly, fly freely through the air." He explained as he adjusted a switch on his control panel slightly. "And I think that's the reason I was just so...dedicated to pass flight school. As cliché as it sounds, my boyhood dream has come true. Hehe, I followed my dreams, now I fly planes across oceans, to other regions at least 5 times per week, maybe more depending on how long or short it is."

Dave's partner, Athelia nodded in agreement. "It was the same boat for me for many years. When I was a little girl, my childhood hero was Amelia Earhart, her story is just...so inspiring and it made me want to become just like her." She uttered her story. Her voice filled with admiration for the woman, her hero who made history. "I think most of us pilots have some background for wanting to fly, it takes a hefty amount of knowledge to acquire this job that most who don't just quit at some point. Only the true, dedicated pilots can make it."

Yes, it was true that most, if not all pilots had to have the will to fly, the need to soak up the knowledge of the plane and the drive to pursue their career. That's why all pilots love their job. That doesn't mean they don't travel around a lot however, many of the pilots go to different regions every single day, it's like the flight paths are on the back of their hand. Of course there was one downside to flying airplanes a lot though and that was being away from family.

What was sad was that some pilots chose not to have any family, no wife or kids or just didn't keep in contact with their parents and siblings. To them, being up in the air, high in the sky was the thing that mattered most. Everything else but that didn't matter to them, they had a lust for looking at the sky above them and the clouds below them and that's what they did, every single day.

He nodded, "Mmmhmm, I know what you mean. Hang on, got a bit of turbulence." He shifted the height of the airplane slightly, bringing it about a hundred feet lower. "There we go, that was a little weird, but back to what I was saying. I know what you mean, I studied for years even before I took flight school to absorb as much knowledge as I could to make it easier on myself. In the long-run it had its benefits as I graduated a little earlier than everyone else. Heck, I even-"

But his voice was interrupted by multiple loud screams in the seating area. The immediately turned on the cameras to find a sight that horrified them. Four people with what looked to be strong Pokémon were now holding people hostage and there was nothing no one out there could do since any strong attacks inside an airplane from Pokémon could harm not only the people, but the plane itself, since it's such a compacted area.

"ATHELIA!" Dave yelled to his co-pilot. "You need to get out there and stop those maniacs, they cannot get ahold of any hostages or cargo, there's Pokémon, Eggs and a whole bunch of supplies down there! If they are who I think they are, then we are in a whole lot of trouble. I'll manage this thing from up here GO!"

Athelia hesitated for a moment before she nodded and sprinted out the door. When she reached the main public area, it looked a lot worse than it did on video. Some people were what she hoped to be only unconscious, but what was worse was when she lay eyes upon the group of four who were controlling the situation had giant R's on their uniforms, this only meant one thing.

Team Rocket.

 _ **15 minutes earlier.**_

Five people dressed in normal clothing snuck towards the back cargo area to set up their plan. They had to knock out a person manning the area so they could get by, but that was easy with a Sleep Powder attack. They found a nice small room that had a few crates that were sealed shut. They had sick, sadistic grins in their faces as they eyed the cargo being transported.

The cargo inside the boxes was just your average stuff for a Pokémart, potions, Pokéballs, repels, you name it. These crates though were just a bonus to them, what they were really after was the Pokémon on the plane being transported back to the Alolan region. The Pokémon transport system and their Porygon inside went under malfunction a couple days ago and the engineers are working tirelessly to get that fixed, that meant that the only way to transport Pokémon was manually, either by boat, plane, or car, or just carrying the Pokéball around.

One of the grunts whistled in amazement at the cache of Pokéballs in front of him, he counted a total of 65 Pokéballs, meaning 65 more Pokémon for their boss. While he counted, another grunt set up a mini-laptop with a webcam on top of it to signify they were about to call someone. They waited for the line to be picked up for a few seconds before it was answered.

"Hmm. So I assume the mission is about to go down?" A scruffy voice called to them. The only thing the grunts could make out was a silhouette sitting in a chair behind a desk, though they all knew who this man was. This man terrified them, as he had a lot of power in their organization.

A teal-haired man in a white uniform stood up straight and replied. "Yes sir, we've infiltrated flight number 2749, as scheduled. We will be starting our clean and sweep of the main area within the next 10 minutes. Currently swiping what we've counted up to at least 65 Pokéballs into our possession as well as some other goods we've found that will help our organization."

The silhouette seemed to pleased as he nodded. "Good work Archer. Each and every mission may be small in hindsight, but the numbers we are gaining in Pokémon and members are extraordinary! In a few years time, I think we'll be ready for Team Rocket's takeover of the Kanto and Johto regions! And possibly more beyond that! Anyway, proceed as planned Archer and I'll see you back at headquarters."

The four grunts and admin stood tall and saluted. "SIR!" With that, the video feed cut off. The grunts continued to pack their duffel bags to the brim with anything they could find, they managed to pack everything except two eggs that were too big and couldn't fit. One of the asked. "Admin Archer!" The teal-haired man turned to his grunt and replied. "What is it?"

The grunt showed the two eggs to the Admin, "We've managed to pack everything we could, but there's still these two eggs here we couldn't fit anywhere. What do you want us to do with them?"

The Rocket admin smirked. "Just leave them. Team Rocket's goal is not to take care of baby Pokémon whenever they hatch, we only desire the strong and rare Pokémon that will help our takeover of world domination! Just set them down near the back, I may be a Rocket Admin, but even I don't want to destroy eggs like that intentionally. Who knows, maybe someone will catch them when they fall to the ground. Hahahaha." The other grunts laughed with the admin but got back to work getting all their equipment setup.

They had suitcases that they snuck onto the plane with all the equipment they required. Nothing was too complicated for anyone to use, they were grunts so things had to be basic. Team Rocket recently developed a machine that sucked up people's Pokéballs right from their person and today was the first day they were trying them out. The only problem here was that they never tested any of the machines out and were using this mission as a test to see the results. Absolutely crazy, but Rockets like to go big when they do their thing.

They had three suck-up machines and each grunt equipped a machine leaving one lone grunt without one. Though Admin Archer had other ideas. "You grunt!" He pointed to the lone grunt without a machine on his back. "You will stay down here and give us our escape route. I have something for you." Archer began digging into his stache and pulled out a square-like object that has lots of wiring around it and a switch on the face of it.

"This is C-4, don't ever stay go near it when it's blinking unless you want your legs blown off." The grunt gulped as he took this foreign device from the Admin and fiddled with it wondering how it works. The Admin face palmed and explained. "You idiot, did you not just hear me? I said don't fiddle around with it. Now it's really simple, even a grunt like you can figure it out. All you got to do is set it up on that wall over there." He pointed towards an empty wall. "After you plant it there, use this switch right here to activate it, it'll start blinking red. After we're done with the heist, use this as sort of a remote control. All you got to do is be far away, squeeze the trigger here and bye-bye wall. YOU GOT THAT!?" Archer screamed at him as he gave the grunt the 'remote control' to the C-4. He nodded and saluted the Admin. "Good."

One of the grunts alerted him. "Sir, everything's all set-up. Ready to begin the heist." The Admin smirked and replied. "Lovely, let's get this party started." The teal-haired Admin then grabbed a couple of white and red canisters with small lettering that he didn't care to read. He knew how these things worked.

The group of four slowly started climbing the ladder that led back up to the main area where all the passengers sat. Archer checked the door to make sure no one spotted him, luckily no one noticed the knocked out flight attendant still, as he and the remaining three grunts made their way forward. There were two doorways that led to the main area that each had a restricted area sign above the doorway on the opposite side. Clearly those worked. Each grunt took a side behind a door as the admin gave one of his canisters to the grunt who was on the inside of the doorways. "Please tell me you remember how to use this." Archer whispered. The grunt nodded in affirmation that he knew how to use it.

The Rocket Admin nodded toward his grunt. "Alright then. Flashbang out." He and the grunt pulled the pins off the now confirmed flashbangs and threw them into the room. A couple seconds later, the tactical grenades exploded leaving a bright white light to blind everyone in the room momentarily. The grunts quickly released their Pokémon and stormed the large room and started threatening everyone inside, telling everyone not to move. It didn't help the passengers either when the Rocket's Pokémon of multiple Arbok, Machoke, Gloom and Raticate were growling at them and daring them to make a move to see what happens.

One woman however did something as she screamed at the top of her lungs to hopefully alert somebody of what was happening. The scream was quick though as one of the two Gloom released their Sleep Powder on the woman and a couple others, they began to zone out before seeing darkness. The Rockets were hoping something like this wouldn't happen, but they're luck seemed to be crushed because of a single woman's action. Figures. They got to work quickly, switching on the machines and the vacuum-like hoses started sucking up people's Pokeballs one by one. The intel wasn't kidding though when they said it was mostly vacationers, they really WERE mostly vacationers and thus didn't suck up many Pokeballs, but enough to satisfy their boss.

It seemed the now knocked-out woman's scream alerted one of the flight attendants as a woman in her early 30's stormed out of the cockpit to come face to face with four individuals with big R's on their uniforms identifying them as members of the criminal organization known as Team Rocket. The woman had a look of surprise but then a look of fear on her face as she came face-to-face with the Rocket grunts and Admin.

Rocket Admin Archer laughed. "Hahaha. Well, well, what do we have here? Miss co-pilot here thinking she can save the day. Don't bother bringing out your Pokémon to battle, it'd be 8 to 1. Plus, having a Pokémon battle in an airplane 30,000 feet in the air doesn't seem like such a good idea. Does it now?"

Athelia growled at the Admin, but knew he was right. She couldn't risk battling them this high up in the air. 30,000 feet, that's a long drop if things went haywire. Plus she only had three Pokémon on her at the moment so she'd have no chance taking 2-3 each of the Rockets' Pokemon. There was no winning this fight with battles, but she could at least know what they wanted. "What is Team Rocket even doing here anyway!? Hardly anyone here has Pokémon on them, the Alola region is mostly a vacation area, not a place to battle like the other regions of the world!"

Admin Archer found her notions hilarious, but answered truthfully. "True, very true about Alola being not a battle-heavy area, but it does have its perks. And there are trainers that flock there for those...weird trials. However we mostly came for all the cargo down stairs, most of it has already been stolen."

The co-pilot was beyond angered. "But that is supposed to be transported back to the Alolan region! Some of that is to save some Pokémon's lives and that's where actual Pokémon are stored. I don't even need to guess you stole all of them, do I?" Her left eye was twitching in a mix of frustration and irritation at the Rocket members in front of her.

"Hmm, I suppose not. I would be lying if I said we didn't snatch up each and every Pokéball from that storage, they will surely make fantastic additions in the Team Rocket ranks. If anything, you should be thanking us for rounding them up, it'll be sparing their lives from future events. Not all Pokémon have that privilege you know."

"YOU'RE SICK! YOUR WHOLE CORPORATION IS ABSOLUTELY SICK!" She yelled out at the Admin. "Why do this? Why sign up for something so...wicked?" Athelia said distastefully. She hated Team Rocket with a burning passion, and for them to get involved with her job, it made her blood boil and her hatred skyrocket for the evil organization.

"Wicked is such a...strong word my dear, I prefer to use the term...nefarious. Just a synonym yes, but it sounds much less horrible than 'wicked,' and let alone 'evil.' Team Rocket isn't wicked at all, we simply just...have our own goals. We're no more wicked than the governments that withstand in each region of the world. Now what our goals exactly are, I'm afraid I cannot disclose that information to you. There's just simply not enough time to discuss it all at once. Though if you helped out in Team Rocket's goals, you can learn all of our dirty secrets and what we plan to do." Archer was having fun with this. It made his insides jump for joy watching people squirm around like Caterpie.

Athelia's face was filled with horror at the attempt for them to persuade her into joining the one thing she hated most. "NEVER!" She all but shouted. "I will NEVER join an organization who's lives are dedicated to stealing Pokémon and if it came down to it, outright MURDERING PEOPLE! Only insane people would want to kill and every member in your group are all absolutely insane!"

Archer faked a sad face. "That's too bad, and here I was hoping we could get to know each other." His voice was so calm, yet cold at the same time it sent shivers down the pilot's spine. "Though I think it's about time that we hightail it out of here. Gloom, use Stun Spore on the pilot! She can watch us as we escape with all the goods. Hehehe." Archer finished with the sickest grin you'd ever see. One of the Gloom stepped forward and began to emit yellow particles from its body on the defenseless pilot in front of them. Athelia felt her entire body go completely numb as she slid down to the ground from where she was already forced to kneel down from earlier.

Archer slowly clapped his hands in a dramatic format. "Wow, very good Gloom. You know, times like this are just when I wish we had more members with us now so we can carry more loot away from this place. Of course, you'd make a fine trophy." Archer expressed as he crouched down to the woman below him. Athelia was literally frozen in fear from that last statement, she of course knew what he meant and she sure as hell did not want any of those events to transpire. "But, we came for items, not peoples. It's not in the description to take back any humans with us as they would be utterly useless."

Archer smiled as the terrified face on the woman below him. "Aww, you would have made a fine addition to Team Rocket. Though I guess we all can't get our wishes. It's a real shame." He paused for a second. "Truly is, you would have fit in nicely back at headquarters with all the other female grunts. Your feisty attitude would actually be looked up to in our ranks, I can already tell you'd be the best Admin in a few years time. Damn, too bad every rank is filled to the brim as it is. Maybe you're lucky we're not taking you or anyone else here today, not sure how the boss would affair to all the others here, but I know he would go easy on you."

Athelia's mouth couldn't make out any words as she just wanted this man's torture to stop. The way he spoke made it seem like he was actually a little bit insane. He continued. "Welp, enough chitter-chatter." He patted her face three times before he stood up once more. "We got the goods boys, let's move out!" The other three grunts saluted the Admin as they rolled out. "SIR!"

They maneuvered their way to the back of the airplane once more, dashed into the room they came from and climbed back down the ladder to their escape room. Once they were in the room, Archer was surprised to see the C4 he gave to the grunt they left there placed onto the wall ready to blow. He would be impressed if he didn't see the grunt fiddling around with the switch that was used to actually detonate the darn thing. He had it in both of his hands trying to figure out exactly how to detonate the bomb planted on the wall.

The Admin inwardly face-palmed and groaned out loud. Seriously, could any of the grunts granted to him actually figure out even the most basic of things? Probably not. He stomped his way to the grunts and removed the detonator from his hand, "Give me that! I swear you grunts are the most useless beings at times. It's like I'm talking to a sack of potatoes here for Arceus sake!" His voice filled with frustration.

Once he grasped the detonator he immediately hit the switch and the bomb that was once planted on the wall was now gone and left a small hole in its place. No it actually left a hole that was only about 4 and half feet tall and a little over 2 feet wide. Archer had to rub his eyes as what he saw and when he confirmed he wasn't seeing an illusion, he yelled out. "DAMMIT PROTON! You have got to be kidding me! He got us the cheap-ass bombs. Figures. Last time I ask him for explosives ever again. You think I would have done that a long time ago, but NO! I had to go to him and asked for bombs once again. _*sigh*_ "

While Archer was ranting about the smaller-than-expected hole in the wall, the other four grunts began equipping their parachutes for their escape from 30,000 feet in the air. What nobody had thought of though was how they were going to get their machines down from the plane, back to headquarters. They had no room on their back to store the Pokéball suckers and that was a problem. "Hey boss." One grunt asked.

"WHAT!?" He yelled into the face of the grunt who called him. The grunt backed away in fear, "Umm sir. There seems to be a bit of a problem. We can't equip the machines and parachutes at the same time. The machines are too heavy for them and our body weight for the parachute to handle, we'd just plummet to the ground." He did not want to get on the bad side of the Admin in front of him, but had no other choice.

The Admin was livid. Just how many more things these morons will get wrong today? "Give me the friggin' machines!" He yelled towards the grunts as they set down the machines to the nearest wall. Archer began emptying the Pokéballs from the machines into multiple different duffel bags and even threw some stuff out the hole behind him to make space. Eventually he got all the Pokéballs into the bags and threw one each to the three grunts.

"There. Arceus, I got to do everything myself! Y'all just can't have an IQ above 5 for once and think of a simple solution as just emptying the Pokéballs into our duffel bags. F me. Leave the machines, we got plenty more at headquarters and these did fine today, besides, they won't see the light of day tomorrow." He complained as he rubbed his temple, he started to feel a headache coming on, but ignored it for the time being as he took a parachute off of one of the grunt's back, preferably the one who was manning the C4 minutes earlier.

What the Admin did shocked everyone in the room they were in. He straight up pushed the grunt to the small hole and mercilessly kicked his behind out the hole, never to be seen again... and without a parachute. The grunts couldn't believe what they had just witnessed, they watched their Admin essentially murder one of their own in cold blood by viciously kicking him out of the hole for him to plummet 30,000 feet to the ground before he would get flattened like a tiny weedle under a man's boot. It was sickening and despite the three of them being in Team Rocket, they never had any agenda to kill people like that. The only female of the group almost threw up her breakfast mere seconds after the event happened and when her mind processed what actually happened.

Archer unfazed by the event that just transpired called out to the group. "Despite you all being complete idiots at times, I have to commend you for your efforts today. This may be small, but each and every mission accomplished will bring Team Rocket closer to our goals. I'll see you back at headquarters." With a nod and with his parachute now secure, he dashed towards the hole and squeezed through it and went skydiving down to the Kanto region itself.

The grunts were flabbergasted at how...normal, their Admin seemed to be when he kicked one of their own out the window for one mistake. Like he had done it a million times, though who's to say he hasn't? They each shook their head as they took their respective duffel bag filled with items and skydived back down to headquarters. They just couldn't understand why what happened, happened. They would never be the same after today. Though none of the grunts realized how close the hole was to the plane's right wing and hadn't been aware of the massive damage caused by the explosion from the C4 earlier.

...

Meanwhile, back to the main area of flight 2749, Athelia was just starting to be rid of her paralysis, but had a mixture of emotions flowing through her such as anger, frustration, fear, anxiety, etc. This had to be one of the worst days of her life. As she got back to the cockpit, she noticed her partner, Dave was frantically turning switches and trying to turn the steering control they had to the left as much as possible. It was only then she realized that the plane felt like it was going sideways, but he was pulling the control to the left, but the plane felt slanted to the right.

Uh Oh.

As quick as a Ninjask, she sprang into her seat and began questioning her partner and why the plane was tilting towards the right. Dave answered. "I checked the security feeds. It appears Team Rocket used some sort of bomb to blow a hole in the side of the plane to route their escape! On top of it, the explosion did damage to the right wing. We are in deep water if we can't get this under control and we need to make an emergency stop to the Viridian City airport to get this mess sorted out! I just hope we can make it."

Could her day get any worse? Now those Rocket buffoons blew a whole in their aircraft and did damage to their wing. Great. She got out the intercom and announced to the passengers. "Attention folks, this is your co-pilot speaking. It seems the attack we just received from Team Rocket has done more damage than we thought it would, as they damaged one of our wings and is becoming harder to control the plane. Please fasten your seat-belts as we are making an immediate stop in Viridian City so no one's in danger. That is all." The after effect were almost immediate as she heard people start to gasp and start to panic. She just hoped they did what they were told.

She got back on her side of the console and began communicating with the control tower in Viridian. "Area control, this is flight 2749! Requesting immediate clearance at the Viridian Runway! Damage has been done to the right wing and we're having a hard time controlling it and need to land ASAP!"

The control that communicates with all the aircraft in Viridian responded. "Roger that 2749, we'll have the runway cleared for immediate landing, E.T.A, 5 minutes." Athelia sighed in relief as she starting taking control of her side of the console to try and get the PLANE under control. This flight was not over yet.

The pilots weren't getting much luck as they were communicating with each trying their hardest to the plane they were manning straightened out. "Pull left! PULL LEFT ATHELIA!" "I'm trying, the drag on the right side combined with the plane's weight isn't making things any easier!"

Athelia continued. "Alright, release some lift slowly, we're down to 25,000! Come on!" She shouted as she and her partner continued manning the aircraft. Things we're going their way so far, they got down about 5,000 feet and we're continuing to man their aircraft well. This was their job and they knew how to handle situations like this one.

The craft continued to slowly decline with the two pilots barely managing to keep the plane straight when they heard a beep come from their console below them. "What was that?!" Dave questioned. He was in the main pilot seat so he couldn't take his eyes off the steering mechanism below him so he ushered for Athelia to check. She checked for what made the noise and her heart dropped when she eventually went to the security feeds. She couldn't even make out a sentence as it tore her heart out.

"Well?" He questioned. Athelia finally got her act together and replied. "The wing caught fire...and it's spreading."

Dave's eyes widened at the claim and checked himself while manning the steering and saw she was indeed correct. History has shown 100% of the time when a plane catches fire on the wings, it ends in disaster. Planes may be a force to reckon with, but fire is its one weakness. Fire was the weakness to practically everything except water. And the only Pokémon they had on them were not water types, even so Pokémon weren't even aloud on board unless they were 20 pounds and under and were no more than 2 feet tall. They were at a loss, but they weren't giving up.

"We got to make this the safest landing as humanly possible! Dave, start decreasing the lift but keep it steady. We won't make to Viridian in time so we need to land just somewhere!" Dave nodded at his partner's actions and began releasing lift slowly, making sure to keep the plane steady. They were heading to the ground faster now but still at a good pace. Athelia was making sure to keep the plane turning left, but it wasn't working as well as it was before.

They were at 10,000 feet now and the aircraft was still gliding sideways with no help in sight when a red light popped on. "Oh No! Dave, we got engine failure! Pull up! PULL UP!" The controls were more out of their hands than ever before. They were trying to pull the plane up but it was still falling faster than ever before. The weight and drag were just too strong now.

Dave felt like he failed, there wasn't much more he could do. "We're not gonna make it, but this is my job and I'm not giving up. Left, left, left left! Pull Up! Help me out Athelia!

6,000 Feet.

The pilots were struggling to keep the plane up but it was still heading down to the ground nose first.

3,000 Feet.

"BRACE FOR IMPACT EVERYBODY!" Dave yelled into the intercom.

1,000 Feet.

The controls seemed to come back to life for a few seconds as the plane started to lift back up slightly, but the weight was far greater than the lift and they weren't getting much anywhere. The alarm made started to make a whoop, whoop noise and started repeating, "Pull Up, Pull Up." Over and over again.

500 feet.

This was it. The pilots were saying their final prayers as they saw the ground below them come more and more near. Dave couldn't help it and just blurted out. "OH SHI-"

Impact.

The sound of impact the aircraft created was like a tactical nuke. Weighing at over 250 tons, the weight being a little over 500,000 pounds, you can bet that the sound of impact was loud enough to hear all the way across the oceans into the different regions around the world. The plane actually skidded about 1,000 feet before coming to a complete stop on the ground. The results were catastrophic.

The front engine was on fire, the wing was on fire and Arceus knows if anybody actually survived that crash. Flight 2749 ended in utter disaster, if anyone even made it out alive, it would be a miracle in itself. The Salamence on the back wing was completely gone, replaced by a burning flame, the whole thing was a mess. More than 550 people were boarded on flight 2749. There was movement.

One of the side doors closest to the ground burst open and out came somebody! Somebody actually survived the carnage and destruction of Flight 2749. This person was none other than Athelia.

Athelia coughed and limped out from the plane and you could tell she's seen better days. Her whole body was sore to the exact cells. An excruciating pain could be felt in her left arm and her left foot as well was very hard to walk on. She coughed out some blood on the floor and wondered how she even survived this day. She limped over to a nearby tree and took a seat by it, there was nothing else she could do, her whole left side felt broken, she figured she had a broken nose since blood was pouring from it and on top of it, her career was ruined.

She brought out her walkie talkie the pilots had in case of emergencies like that contacted. "Someone...it... i-is anyone there?" There was no response for a moment before she got a reply back. "Pilot Athelia? Is that you!?" The voice on the other side asked.

Athelia nodded and replied very weakly. "Yeah...it-it's me." Her voice drained from most emotions and the only one there was sadness and exhaustion. The voice on the other side countered. "Thank Arceus, we have camera feeds over here and saw the whole incident, but they cut out once the plane made impact with the ground. Are you alright? Is anyone else alive?"

Athelia found it hard to answer, but did so anyway. "No, no one is coming out of the plane... _*gulp*_ and the whole plane is on fire at this point. I think I'm the only survivor...whiplash from impact must've either...knocked everyone else out or...or..." She couldn't finish.

The man operating the other walkie talkie replied. "Okay, you don't seem like you're alright and need medical attention right away. GPS tracks the point of impact was just west of Saffron City so we'll send immediate medical attention to your location. Hang in there Athelia, you're gonna be alright. Stay with me on line so I know you're okay."

Athelia nodded. "O..Okay." Whatever wasn't in pain felt like it couldn't move at all, like she had just ran a marathon. The right side of her body was sore from the crash, the left side she felt was in pain she couldn't remember the last time she felt as bad as it was now and on top of it, she wasn't seeing anyone else coming from the wreckage less than 100 feet in front of her.

She started to sob a little. It was official, with Team Rocket interfering with her job, stealing Pokémon from her plane and then essentially killing everyone on board besides her, it was the worst day of her life by far.

What nobody realized though were that the two eggs Team Rocket left behind in the room with the hole actually rolled out of the plane when it shifted to the right more and more. The plane was at about 15,000 feet when they finally rolled out the hole and started to plummet towards the Earth below. Seemingly no savior in sight.

...

On the ground in a small town in the south-western part of the Kanto region, we find a small boy who's look appears to be at the age of around 5, maybe 6 years old at the most, running around in an open field. This boy had spiky hair on his head that went in all directions with the color of raven-black. He was currently wearing a pair of jean shorts that went to his knees, a red Pokémon League T-Shirt and his signature Pokémon League Expo baseball cap. This boy's name is Ash Ketchum.

He was currently racing his best and probably only friend at the moment. His friend was a couple inches taller than he was, despite him being older. She had brunette hair which went down to her shoulders, long knee-length baby-blue socks that went under her red and white shoes. She had on a pair of blue jeans that went down past her knees and was matching Ash with a Pokémon League shirt, only hers was the same shade of blue that matched her socks instead of red. The girl. Leaf Green.

They were currently in a race running laps around small field to see who was the faster of the two. So far it was neck and neck between the two youngsters. They made it a goal to see who could run 5 laps around the field first; they are 6 and 5 years old, what do you expect? Leaf started pulling ahead on the last lap thanks to her longer legs and just overall better agility and sprinted ahead of Ash and beat him by about a two second lead. By the end of it, both were exhausted from the past ten minutes and panted as they began to get their breath back.

Ash had his hands on his knees trying to taken in oxygen back to his lungs. Leaf was almost the same except she was basking in victory that she beat Ash once again in a race. "Ha. See Ash, told you I would win!" She claimed with the biggest smile on her face.

Ash stood up straight once more and replied. "I thought I had you this time Leaf. In the past like 3 years we've been racing I've only beaten you the first time, now you're ahead by like 27-1!" He made a dramatic stance on his knees. "WHEN WILL I ACHIEVE VICTORY AGAIN!?" While swinging his fists back and forth in the air.

Leaf laughed at her best friend's antics. He always knew how to make her smile. "I was thinking about letting you win today since it is your birthday, but then I thought against it, this is actually win number 29 in a row for me!" She held up a victory sign with her fingers. "Alright, alright, soak in the glory Leaf, I'll win next time!"

Leaf giggled and replied. "You say that every time...and then you don't. Maybe one day."

"But it's so NOT fair!" He complained. "You're like 2 inches taller than I am and those legs are just giving you a complete advantage. It's like you get an extra speed boost when we're playing Mario Kart at the very end and victory is all yours. I wanna win for once!" He stomped around like a child, mumbling to himself about how Leaf always beats him in these situation and that he deserved to win for once.

Of course Leaf heard the whole thing since Ash mumbles like he's having a normal conversation and just laughed at him once more. "Oh Ash. You're too funny. But enough about you deserving to win races. What do you want to do now birthday boy?"

Ash came back and thought it for a second but didn't know what exactly to do. He already did what he wanted to throughout the day already and it was barely 2 PM. He sighed as he put his hands behind his head and looked up at the sky for some sort of answer. His answer was coming down sooner than he thought, literally.

Ash raised an eyebrow as something caught his eye, he saw a couple objects falling at a diagonal pattern from the East. He focused his eyes some more to realize that those objects looked to be Pokémon eggs. His eyes widened on their own and took a sprint into the forest to try and catch the eggs. Leaf wondering what just happened started to chase after him.

Of course she caught up to him. "Ash, what are on Earth are you doing? I already proved I'm the faster runner out of the two of us, no need for me to rub it in anymore." She said with a victory smile. Ash shook his head at her and replied. "No, no we're not racing, though going as fast as we can is the best option right now. Look up there!" He pointed towards the sky. Leaf looked up and squinted her eyes as the sun was close but realized that two eggs were free-falling from the sky coming from who knows where. She then realized why Ash took off in a sprint and a quick conclusion came to her head. Those eggs would shatter into a million pieces if they didn't do something about it.

So she took off faster than even in the race leaving Ash in the dust, but he was still going, determined to catch those eggs or lives would be lost before they even began. The eggs were light, like most other eggs so they were falling at a relatively slow pace than something heavier would fall, but still would crack if they made contact with the ground, they already knew this so they had to think of something fast.

Eventually they made their way under where the eggs should fall and Leaf asked. "Ash, now's the time to use that creative brain of yours! Got any ideas? Preferably ones that won't crack the eggs!?"

Ash had to think for a moment, he needed something soft that even a flying-type Pokémon that fell from the sky wouldn't get injured in the slightest. But they didn't have anything on them and they were surrounded by trees.

Trees. Leaves. Branches. He got an idea. "Leaf, gather as much leaves and branches as you can put them in a pile here! I'll he-" Leaf already dashed off before Ash could finished his sentence. She knew exactly what to do so she climbed the trees as quick as she could and was throwing any loose branches she could find in a pile below her, Ash doing the same. The eggs were at about 400 feet in the air now and were falling pretty fast. They keep throwing soft branches into their piles in hopes it was in the correct area and the eggs would land safely.

Suddenly they heard a soft brushing noise. They both looked and found two relatively large eggs in one piece. Both sighed in relief, they had just saved two lives that day. They climbed down from their respective trees and stopped for a moment to catch their breath. Once fresh oxygen was inhaled, they went on to check on the two eggs they managed to save from utter decimation.

One of which consisted a primarily brown color to it, with some gray stripes along the top and bottom of the egg with a few gray dots scattered around the shell randomly. The other egg was primarily pink with white and green strips heading latitude ways all throughout the egg and that was it for that one. A little less complex than the former but definitely had a brighter vibe to it. They looked like eggs painted on Easter but definitely were not custom, these were real.

"Check these out!" Ash said with a smile on his face. He had seen eggs before, but nothing like these.

Leaf squealed. "Oooh! I call holding the pink one!" She rushed over and gently picked up the egg, but was surprised to find the eggs extremely cold to the touch. It had to be from the air rushing past it on its way to the ground. It was the only solution she could come up with.

She questioned. "Ash, check if your egg is cold to the touch like mine is." Ash raised an eyebrow when she said it was HER egg, but complied nonetheless and was surprised to feel that his egg was pretty cold itself. They had recently started learning about Pokémon with Professor Oak about a year prior to today and one of the first subjects they studied was Eggs so they knew cold eggs meant that Pokémon wouldn't hatch. And that they're as good as breakfast eggs.

"Yeah mine is cold as well. Remember Professor Oak's teaching where he mentioned that eggs, if cold long enough wouldn't produce life? We need to get these to him now!" Leaf nodded and started running back to Professor Oak's lab with Ash in tow, each with their respective eggs wrapped around in their arms. hoping that they would save the lives of whoever's inside a second time.

The run back wasn't easy as they took a shortcut through a forest so they had to dodge dangling branches, logs on the ground, a couple Rattata and Caterpie here and there and it took a good 5-7 minutes before they finally made it back to the ranch. They were still slightly sore from earlier so that didn't make their run back any easier.

When they ran into the ranch, they noticed Professor Oak feeding the water Pokémon their lunch. It was just past 2 PM, so they knew feeding time was now for the Pokémon, but Leaf couldn't wait and called out to him. "HEY! Professor Oak! We need your help now!"

The Professor, hearing his name called turned and saw the two youngsters approaching him. "Well, if it isn't Ash and Leaf back from having fun!" It was only now he realized they had returned with something in their arms. "Hmm, what are those?" As they got closer, he noticed they looked like eggs and immediately rushed forward to the duo and asked. "My goodness, you go out there for an hour and suddenly you return with eggs? Where did these come from and please tell me you didn't steal them from some Pokémon?"

Leaf shook her head. "No we didn't steal them. You're not gonna believe us on this, but these eggs fell out of the sky." As obnoxious and unbelievable as that sounded to him, he knew the two kids in front of him didn't lie when it came to Pokémon, they always loved playing with them in the ranch and studied extremely hard when it came to soaking up knowledge on Pokémon so them finding eggs that fell out of the sky was believable to him, but only from these two. "Alright, let me see them." He took the eggs from the duo and felt they were extremely cold, more evidence to conclude their story was true.

"Mmm hmm. Air rushing past anything will make them about as cold as this, let's head inside and get these two warmed up." Ash and Leaf nodded towards the Professor and helped him get inside the building that housed the ranch. Oak told the kids to get two incubators for him to warm them up, they already knew where they were so they returned a few seconds later with empty incubators for the eggs.

Oak gently placed them inside and set the temperature to about 75 degrees to warm up the eggs and make sure the creatures that would hatch from them would be alive and well. Oak then sat down on one of his couches and motioned for the kids to sit on the one opposite from him as he wanted to discuss what had happened.

He started out. "So now that, that's taken care of. Would you care to elaborate more on how these eggs supposedly just fell from the sky?"

Ash shook his head. "It's the truth Professor, we were trying to figure out what to do for the rest of today when we saw eggs falling from the sky so we rescued them!"

Leaf nodded in affirmation. "Ash is right. You know we would never steal Pokémon or eggs. We wouldn't dream of it, we want to be friends with all Pokémon and stealing eggs is just naughty."

Oak replied. "I know, I know, I just want to grip the situation at hand. Did you see anything that might have dropped these eggs, like maybe a bird Pokémon perhaps?"

The kids looked at each and shook they heads. "Nope, they just started coming down from the East where the sun rises. They were falling in a slanted pattern so they had to have been in the air for a while." Ash voiced his point-of-view.

"I couldn't have said it any different Professor. We couldn't risk catching the eggs ourselves so we tore off branches from nearby trees and put them in a pile and hoped for the best. Luckily our pile was big enough that it left the eggs unharmed. We picked them up, felt that they were cold and rushed here. And you know the rest."

Oak nodded at Leaf's words. He took a minute to process the information before he replied back. "Well it's a good thing you two brought these eggs here as you saved those Pokémon's lives. If they knew what happened, they would be forever grateful to you two."

Ash's face beamed. "Do you really think so Professor?!"

Oak laughed at the boy and ruffled with his hair. "I know so my boy. They definitely would be very grateful towards you two. Hmm." Oak seemed to go in thought for a few minutes, contemplating something in his mind. The duo in front of him knew that face and knew to stay quiet as the Professor was thinking about something and he normally didn't like his train of thought broken so they just sat innocently on the couch and waited patiently for the old Oak to finish.

After a couple minutes, he came to a conclusion. "Well, what would you two say if you actually got to meet the Pokémon inside of those eggs?"

Ash was confused, "What are you talking about? You mean actually watching them hatch?"

"Precisely my boy. These eggs are actually fairly new, though design-wise, none that I have ever seen. With enough asking around from the other regions' Professors, I'm sure I can find out, but I kind of want to be surprised myself. Certain signs can tell you if the eggs are ready to hatch or not. For instance, these eggs aren't very bright in colors. Of course the colors are there, but the brighter the colors on eggs, the closer they are to hatching. You also got to factor in that these eggs were extremely cold from the air accelerating past it from the fall so they'll unfortunately take even longer to hatch. Such a shame, normally eggs vary between 9-14 months from just being produced to hatch, and that's with care from the beginning; constant warmth and being looked after. Judging from just rough estimations from these two, because they were so frigid to the touch, it could take upwards of four years for them to hatch."

When the duo heard it could take so many years for the eggs they found to hatch, it felt like they just got shot. They wanted to see what was in the eggs as soon as possible, they didn't expect them right away, but four years? That was roughly when they officially started their journeys. They didn't want to wait that long to see what was inside. They knew the elder was right though, they recently studied eggs in his personal class and knew if eggs weren't looked after that they could take A LOT longer to hatch than normally expected. That's why it took knowledge and a license to breed eggs in bunches. One or two eggs were fine if the trainers had at least the basic knowledge of hatching an egg, but they couldn't take care of say 20 eggs or so at once, they would need to be taken to a personal breeder immediately or risk revocation of their Pokémon license.

The rules were harsh, but if you didn't know what you were doing, you would essentially be killing the Pokémon inside those eggs, because you would be killing those Pokémon inside those eggs. That's why there was always eggs available for adoption at Day-Cares. A lot of the time, places like these would target specific Pokémon to breed, in the most common case, starters for the region's Professor for new Pokémon trainers. These places were held in secret so thieves and poachers weren't stealing these Pokémon to sell in secret or on the Black Market, both cases in which such actions were unquestionably illegal.

Leaf couldn't put her words together, "F-f-four years? But that's when our journeys begin! You-You're telling us that we'll have to wait THAT long for us to meet the ones we saved?!" She had gotten her hopes that she would meet the little one that was currently residing inside the shell soon, but four years wasn't exactly soon. Just the thought that it could take that long brought tears to her eyes and they were threatening to fall.

Ash noticed this and comforted his best friend by wrapping his arm around her shoulder and bringing her close. She just didn't want to believe she'd have to wait so long to see the Pokémon she now wanted to meet most. She made an inward promise to be the first one it sees when it hatches, whenever that time comes. Fortunately for her, her watery eyes eventually cleared up and nothing fell. She thanked her best friend for comforting her and was now feeling somewhat better, albeit not much.

Professor Oak saw the whole thing and couldn't help but feel sympathy for the two, they were the ones who saved the lives of those two who would hatch in a few years. A light bulb appeared above his head as he thought of an idea. "Now, now, don't you be all mopey about it. I just thought of an arrangement for you two. Since you two were the ones who saved their lives, you two will be the ones who's faces will be the first two they see when they hatch in a few years time. Also since you two are so passionate about Pokémon, I might just allow the two of you to become the future trainers of said Pokémon residing inside of those eggs. What do you say?"

He didn't need to ask them twice as they ran up to his side and hugged it and thanked him over and over again, it was a quite a sight to see. He laughed at their actions. "Hahaha. Okay, okay that's enough children. That's in the future, today is now. Ash, since today is your birthday and Leaf since your Birthday is in 10 days, I have decided to grant you two a gift. If you would give me a minute to retrieve them." He walked through the door, but peered back in. "No peaking."

Ash and Leaf raised an eyebrow, they didn't expect a gift from the Professor now, at least not yet. Their young minds began to race at the possibilities of what the old man could give them. In Ash's mind, he was thinking of a variety of things like a Pokédex, some comic books or some DVD's of past Pokémon Leagues around the world. Leaf on the other hand had ideas of things like a fishing rod, maybe a brush for her hair since she needed a new one, or even a chance to meet with some kind of rare Pokémon.

Overall, their minds were in complete overdrive in those few minutes the Professor had left the room to get whatever he was getting. They were tempted to see what he was getting them, but listened to his commands nonetheless. In the other room, Professor Oak was on his computer finishing the final touches and started to upload the data on two small machines in front of him. He knew this was the right choice and that no other in Pallet Town deserved this more than those two. Once they were finished, he checked the print and confirmed everything was correct.

He sat up from his chair and walked back into the room prior to find the duo with hard looks on their faces, showing their were deep in thought. He guessed they were going over the all the candidates of what they could receive. He cleared his throat to get their attention, which worked and they both looked at him with curious eyes and waited for him to give them what he was going to give them.

He explained. "Ash, Leaf. You two have been under my teachings for just over a year now and I am impressed with all the hard work and dedication you put into your studies. You two have already learned so much and I am proud to call you my students. Now what I'm about to give you isn't just passed around to every kid under the age of 10. No, only the brightest and most dedicated of children earn this reward and you two have certainly earned it. Now I have actually already told this to you two once before, but I will explain again to refresh your memory. Each Professor around the globe is allowed to give this out to certain students of theirs who they feel are already ready to take up the task at hand.

We only ask for one thing in return and that is to actually go out into the field and study various Pokémon that we assign to you. Ash, the innovation in your brain is astounding and none that I have met your age even compare to the creative thinking you come up with. Leaf, your ingeniousness is elusive to all others, your theories and ideas are not normal for a 5, soon to be 6 year old girl. Combine the two of your personalities together I think will have a major improvement to my research. And that is why I'm granting you two your honorary Pokémon Junior Researcher Licenses!" He finished as he brought out two mini-Pokédexes and granted them to the duo in front of him.

The two had the biggest smiles on their faces you would ever see. They knew what these jobs meant and that they weren't granted to many. Oak continued. "You two should know the basic information already, but I'll explain further. Pokémon Junior Researchers are kids under the age of 12 whom which Professors personally choose to act as their assistants. They go out into the field and collect data and write it down in those fancy research-dexes I have granted to you. Now these dexes are just like the regular Pokédex, it shows the known name, height and all the other features on each Pokemon. Now since the Pokedex is relatively new, there is still a lot of unknown data about certain Pokemon that hasn't been discovered, being it their diets, their habitat, you name it. Any unknown information about a certain species will be marked with a question mark, meaning data in that category needs to be filled, that's where you two come in.

I'm may be kicking still, but I am getting old so I'm going to have you two go out and collect certain data on certain species over the next four years to gather up the data you've collected so the Pokedex can be closer to completion. On top of that, being a Junior Researcher also has its perks. Some Pokemon can be dangerous, so every certified Junior Researcher is allowed to capture up to three Pokemon until they turn 10. I think that's what most excites you two, doesn't it?" He smirked because he knew their answer.

Ash nodded eagerly. "YEAH! I never thought we would actually get to be Junior Researchers! This means we can actually capture Pokemon early!"

Leaf was pretty ecstatic herself. "To be a Junior Researcher is a dream come true. Literally, I dreamed about actually becoming one, but never would I have thought we were worthy of such privileges. I would have thought you would have given something like this to...ugh, Gary." She finished with distaste. Gary always annoyed her to no end as he would always try to take her away from Ash, but she wouldn't budge, she was loyal to her best friend.

Oak shook his head. "My grandson? Oh no, I may be his grandfather, but I am not biased towards family. Honestly, he cares more about his looks at the moment, than studying about Pokemon. It's a shame, I know he has potential, but doesn't use it. He would be granted this opportunity if he had the same drive as you two, but alas, he doesn't."

Ash thought back to previous times where he and Gary were at each other's throats. "Yeah, despite him being a complete jerk, and as much as I hate to say this, he does have potential, he just doesn't execute it. Makes me wonder if he'll even be a good trainer. He says he wants to battle, but with how he is, I'm not so sure."

Oak clapped his hands. "Now remember, you can only capture up to 3 Pokemon in the next four years before you become a trainer, so I would choose wisely. Over 700 species of Pokemon have been discovered and I hear more have just been found recently in some islands across the Pacific. 3 out of over 700 to choose from, they won't be easy choices, but I'm positive you two will be happy with whatever you capture."

He smiled at the youngsters in from of him, who were currently showing their new Research-dexes to each other. They were shaped like the classic Kanto Pokedex only a bit smaller by about an inch for the length and width. Ash's dex had an scarlet red color while Leaf's had a baby-blue hue to it. They were the duo's favorite respective colors, hence why he granted them red and blue.

Suddenly Leaf asked. "Hey Professor, I have a question."

Oak nodded. "Go ahead Leaf, ask away."

"Well, it's about the eggs, you see, I was wondering if you could... reserve them for us if we manage to capture three Pokemon? You said we would be the first one's they see and usually the first Pokemon see are usually who they most uhh...like, yeah. So is that too much to ask?" Leaf questioned with a nervous look on her face.

Oak smirked as he replied. "Because of the scenario you two are in, I'll let a 4th capture slide. But ONLY the Pokemon inside the eggs can be the 4th capture. Understood?"

The kids nodded. "That's what I like to see. Now go on outside, it's your birthday Ash, go play some more. I doubt anymore eggs will fall from the sky so go have fun and I'll see you at your house later tonight."

Once again, the duo nodded and thanked the Professor for everything they've done for them and exited the building, talking about how they couldn't believe this happened and what kind of Pokemon they might catch. By the time they exited out the building, he already heard of over 15 different Pokemon that were possibilities and laughed. Those two really had a bond that not many others had and knew they would become great Pokemon trainers in the future.

 **A/N: And scene! Wow, I finally finished my first chapter. I had two different openings before this one and decided this was the best. One sucked and the other felt rushed in a way. This one seems to give an unique opening that I haven't seen before and honestly, I love the first half of it, I feel I wrote the airplane scene better than I expected. Considering I'm still a very amateur writer, I think it went over well. The 2nd half, I like it, just it didn't have the suspense like the first half did, but I feel it did give a good origins type part to Ash and Leaf.**

 **Don't think the first half was just filler either, I got a plan for it. I have a plan for a lot things my mind has come up with and they're all great. Some of which are complete batsh*t crazy, but can make for a good chapter or couple of chapters. I'm the type of person, who likes to the know the background of a story and instances like flashbacks and even pre-story chapters always gain my interest and that's made me put that here.**

 **The next chapter will be going into which Pokemon Ash and Leaf will capture and the possibility of those mystery eggs hatching. I promise, none of you guys will guess what's in those eggs, I'm 99.99% positive no one will guess even one. But I want to see you guys try so in your review, if you like, try and guess what will be in those eggs just by judging the look and if anyone gets them, I will have a party down here in the post A/N with your name in giant lettering, well, as big as it will be.**

 **Chapter three will be when the official journey will start for our duo. I promise, the next two chapter won't be as long as this one. Chapter I will probably be the longest in the story, maybe not, depends on the idea for that chapter and if the plot requires it to be long. We'll see. Until next time!**

 **Peace Out!**

 **-MidnightJD**

 **Update 1/2/17: Fixed placeholder name of Sally four times and replaced with real name of Athelia.**


	2. Chapter II: Origins of the Journey

**You guys are AMAZING! 40+ favorites and over 60 follows! And I hit my goal of 10+ reviews on the first chapter. I have to seriously thank all of you for the support you're giving to my story, that and the fact that you guys like the reboot of my Rise To A Master (Kanto) story, gives me confidence I can write something good. The feedback you guys left me was good, I was impressed with some of the reviews, like one talked about Archer and how he wasn't as intimidating as he could have been, I have that noted now and don't worry, Archer last appearance won't just be in The End Is Where We Begin, he'll come back later, trust me. That was just...a taste, to see what I can do with him and I'll make him more villainous later.**

 **I'm liking some of your guys' guesses on which Pokémon you think Ash and Leaf will get in those eggs. I won't say if anyone got them right or not, you'll just have to wait and see. Some of the guesses on which Pokémon they'll capture in the beginning of their next 4 years are interesting and some I originally thought were good candidates, but I already decided on the ones I want them to capture. They're...well I won't spoil nothing yet, you'll have to read this chapter to find out! Haha! Here's a couple reviews I'm replying too because I'm nice.**

 **xXSakuraBlossomsXx: I like backstory too. And that's why the first few chapters or so will be backstory before we get to the meat and potatoes of the story.**

 **Eeveelutions Are Awesome: Yes, the story title is based off of what you thought, but it goes deeper than just a reference my friend. Keep that in mind.**

* * *

 **Chapter II: Origins of the Journey**

 _ **October 12th, 2005**_

Today was a special day for the duo of Ash and Leaf as they were running down the dirt path to Professor Oak's research lab as fast as humanly possible, along with 4 Pokémon beside them. About 10 minutes ago while they were training their Pokémon in the Ketchums' backyard, Ash's mother, Delia, got a call from Professor Oak. In that call, he told her to send the two youngsters up to his lab as soon as possible as he had a surprise for them. The Professor used air quotes at "a surprise," and Delia knew exactly what he meant so she called for the children to head down to the Oak's lab as soon as possible.

The two youngsters were smarter than most thought and they had a relatively good idea what this surprise was so the bolted out of the backyard down the dirt path. As the two, nine year olds were racing up the hill, they couldn't help but smile at their two Pokémon they captured over the years, they remembered each instance of how they received them. Each capture happened in a totally more diverse and bizarre way than the prior and some of them got into some chaotic situations, but they wouldn't trade them for any other. Who are these Pokémon? Well let's take a little trip down memory lane to years prior. **{1}**

 _ **February 7th, 2003** _

It had been about nine months since our two youngsters got the title of Pokémon Junior Researcher and coming as a complete surprise, they both hadn't captured a Pokémon yet. Ash being the numbskull he is, originally wanted to just go out and see what Pokémon he can capture. After pulling his ear and dragging his sorry butt back to the lab the first day they got their new title, well, let's just say some words were said from Leaf and he had a lot more respect and a hell of a lot of more fear towards his bubbly best friend. He hasn't tried to capture a Pokémon since. Poor Ash.

The duo took their new title quite seriously in completing the newly developed Pokédex. It had been in development for the last 10 years between various corporations across the globe like Silph. Co, the Devon Corporation and many other small companies so it was fairly new and thus needed information gathered to get the knowledge out to the world. A lot of it was already gathered thanks to helpful trainers temporarily letting their Pokémon get examined and analyzed, but it wasn't everything needed. Natural habits and traits weren't something trainers couldn't provide, that's where Ash and Leaf came in.

Now they weren't going to be placed in caves or dangerous areas where dangerous Pokémon such as, say Beedrill or even Aggron could be. No, they were mostly looking into the Pokémon around Pallet Town like Pidgey, Rattata, Spearow and the occasional Caterpie and Weedle. They're job was to find out everything they could about the local Pokémon in the area and help around the lab with feeding the Pokémon not in their trainers' care in that point in time. It was fun for the duo and they even made friends with a few of the Pokémon around. Leaf fit in nicely with the grass types around while Ash got in well with surprisingly, the fighting type Pokémon.

He recently took an interest in learning self-defense moves and wanted to improve his skills in that category and he fit in with quite a few fighting types like Hitmonchan and Hitmonlee, Machop, and even a Hariyama. Whenever he had free time either not studying under Oak, researching Pokémon, or hanging with either Leaf or his mother, he spent his time here and while he was only six at the moment, he was doing alright for a newbie.

His best friend was interested in the grass types, her name is freaking, 'Leaf Green.' Trying to say Leaf wasn't interested in grass types was like saying Ash wasn't a knucklehead, it just. Wasn't. True. While she did have an interest in grass types, she planned to capture a variety of Pokémon on her journey. She loved all Pokémon equally and wasn't going to neglect others because they were a certain type, that was hypocritical to her. Now while she wasn't being taught martial arts like Ash was with the fighting types, she was definitely studying that group of Pokémon more so than others, though Oak wasn't complaining; just as long as they were doing their job was enough for him.

Recently though, Oak received a call from his friend, Professor Elm, that he needed some assistance in studyng the local Pokémon around the area since he was too busy studying his field of expertise, which was eggs, and requested Oak to send some help. He was too busy with eggs at the moment, but still wanted to contribute to the Dex in some way. Oak accepted and requested for the duo to come to him.

He explained how his good friend in the Johto region needed some help studying some Pokémon in the area around New Bark Town and asked the youngsters if they wanted to do it. The thought of meeting some new Pokémon they never seen before was enough for them to immediately nod their heads yes and it was set. They'd be heading to Johto in a few days time. Oak a little afterwards phoned the mothers letting them know that one of them needed to take them to Johto for a bit for a task he needed. Leaf's mother, Natalia Green **{2}** , unfortunately was too busy with her breeding job to take them. Delia accepted the offer in wanting to see Johto since it's been a number of years since she's been there.

It was on the 7th of February when they arrived in the Johto region and the duo could not be more excited to be there. It was their very first time outside of the Kanto region.

Ash was ecstatic. "Wow Leaf! We're in Johto! This place is gonna be awesome!"

"You're telling me. I can't wait to see all the new Pokémon native here!" Leaf squealed in excitement. Her love for Pokémon rivaled Ash's in many ways and could even surpass it at times. And this is Ash we're talking about.

Delia decided to cut in. "Alright children, you two can talk about Pokémon later. Right now, we need to find 1456 Shel Avenue. **{3}** , that's where Professor Elm's lab is. According to Oak, he'll provide rooms for us in the upstairs section of his lab. Now come along, the sooner we get there, the sooner you two get to see the Pokémon!"

You didn't have to tell them twice as they ran to Ash's mother to catch up. They then marched out of the airport and started to transverse the town of New Bark. The town itself wasn't actually that big, it was just slightly larger than Pallet Town and was more city-like than the country-like town they're used to. Since it was a little more crowded than what they're used to, it took around 30 minutes asking for directions around the town before they made their way into the lab they were looking for.

When they entered, they noticed two kids, looking to be 10 years old in front of them looking to pick their first starter. One of which had pale white skin matched with blood red hair that went together with his eyes quite unusually. His clothing consisted of a navy-blue jacket with a red zipper and red outlines where his pockets are located to match his hair. Below his jacket are his pants consisting of a light-purple color with shoes to match his jacket.

The other person was a little less intimidating with short dirty-blonde hair that was neatly cut into a spiky position with a relatively good tan to add to his Caucasian skin tone and amber-brown eyes. His clothing consisted of black denim jeans mixed a white T-Shirt under a gray sleeveless vest. He had traditional black sneakers with a white thick pinstripe going across the midsection of the shoe with white laces.

Elm spoke to the two. "Well, Silver, Calvin. Have you two made a decision yet?"

Silver nodded and spoke up. "Yeah. I choose Totodile." He finished bluntly.

The other soon-to-be trainer, Calvin nodded as well. Me too, I've decided to go with Chikorita!" He said with enthusiasm.

Elm agreed and retrieved Totodile and Chikorita's Pokéballs and handed them to their respective trainers. The now named Silver simply returned his Pokémon to his Pokéball and walked out the lab without saying another word, ignoring the three that were giving him looks of curiosity at his behavior.

Leaf's gut gave her a bad feeling when the red-head, Silver came close to them. Though he didn't bother to give them a second, or even a first glance really. Something inside of her told her to stay away from him, should they ever meet. She turned back to see the other trainer who she remembered his name was Calvin hugging his starter, already liking the Pokémon. She smiled at the sight.

Ash hardly noticed Silver as he was more curious on the behavior on the one Pokémon who didn't get picked, Cyndaquil. It looked really sad and he couldn't understand why so. Some starters don't get picked all the time, eventually they all do, but this one seemed like it was ready to cry, but prevented itself from doing so. Maybe it was the sight of the other boy in front of him giving his starter love and he was jealous, maybe he was sad he didn't get picked. He had no clue, he would keep that little guy in mind though.

Elm seemed to notice the mother and two children as he started to walk up to them. "Ah greetings you three! I am Professor Elm! The Johto region's certified Pokémon Professor." He introduced himself. He then looked down at the two and noticed they were familiar. "Ah! You two must be the great Ash and Leaf that Professor Oak was talking about. He talked highly about you two and your help with his research. Looks like big things come in small packages, I have no doubt you two will be able to aid in the research of the Pokémon here in the Johto region!" He finished with a grin.

Leaf spoke up. "We're happy to help. Professor Oak said you're really busy and that we will play a major role in the Pokémon studying!"

Elm laughed. "Hahaha! Yes I can already tell you two will be excellent help around here for a few days. You must be their mother, am I correct?" Elm looked up at Delia.

She responded. "Just the young man here, the little girl here belongs to my friend, she couldn't make it here so I volunteered to take them here. And before you ask, there isn't any trouble at all." She waved him off.

Elm nodded. "Well that's good, you can put your things upstairs and come meet me down here so I can give you your list of Pokémon information needed." The three agreed and walked upstairs to put their bags away. Calvin walked up to him with his new Chikorita in his arms and asked. "Friends of yours?"

"You could say that, those two young ones are going to aid me in the Dex research while I can keep up my studies on my eggs."

"I can help you with that, they look no older than the age of 7. It wouldn't be a problem for me."

Elm waved him off. "It's okay Calvin. Besides, those two actually hold the title of Pokémon Junior Researcher. They need the experience and according to that old coot Oak, they've actually gotten some results for the National Dex. They're really smart for their age, plus they could use the experience. By the way, they're 6 actually."

Calvin's eyes widened at that statement. "Only 6 years old? Wow, that's so young and they're already Junior Researchers, most kids get that title at the age of 8 or older. I'm impressed and a little jealous, they get to capture Pokémon early."

The trainer heard a growl and looked down at the Pokémon he was holding and saw an angered look on its face. That caught him off guard but tried something to save him. "Chikorita, I promise, I wouldn't trade you for anything, I swear!" The grass Pokémon just looked away.

He sighed thinking,' _Nice one you idiot. You managed to make your Pokémon angry at you, 10 minutes after you were introduced. Stupid, Stupid, Stupid.'_ He was mentally smacking himself and he would've done so physically if not for holding the little one in his arms.

"Calvin, you're a trainer now and you get to capture, well, really as many Pokémon as you want. Just please don't bring back a hundred Pokémon like some trainers do! I'm begging you! Just a few please! I like Pokémon just as much as the next guy, but trying to care for all of them is Tiring!" He was practically on his knees at this point, it was quite a sight.

Calvin just looked stunned but then agreed. "O...okay then. Umm...You know what, I-I'm just gonna go. So uhh...yeah." This was so awkward for him. "See ya!" He waved with one arm and ran out the door never looking back. Elm had to drag himself off the floor and pray Calvin and Silver wouldn't bring in like 50 Pokémon to add to his area, he had enough as it is and anymore would just kill him.

Eventually the duo came back downstairs with Ash's mother relaxing upstairs, figuring she needed a nice bed after a couple hour flight. Elm turned to see bright smiles on the duo's faces and could tell they were ready to help. Elm smiled. "Hmm. You two seem you already want to help around here. Not a problem, I admire your enthusiasm. Let me get see your research dexes for a moment, if you please." He held his hand out waiting to receive their dexes.

The duo complied and handed him their research dexes. He began to fiddle around at his computer as he slid the two dexes in some sort of machine that was foreign to the youngsters. After a couple minutes, he was done and handed them back. "There we go. I programmed the known Johto Pokémon into your research dexes there and highlighted the ones around here that need to be analyzed. Just press on the ones highlighted and you'll be able to see what's needed."

They began to look through the dex and found a few familiar Pokémon from their studies, but a couple new ones they've never seen before as well. They knew there were a lot of Pokémon out in the world, but the immense diversity that differentiated each and every one was astounding. Their smiles grew the further they went down the list and by the time they made it to the end, they were about ready to bounce off the walls in excitement.

Elm noticed this and spoke up. "Alright then, now that you've gotten a look at the Johto Pokémon, why don't you get out there and get that data! Oh and don't worry about the wild Pokémon around, they're really nice to kids and are always just looking to play, but do get serious when a trainer comes around. You will be fine. Now GO! Scoot! Get out there and leave me to my research!" He shooed them off as he went back to his studies on the egg on his table.

As the duo were running outside and to their designated area, they had one thought on both of their minds. _'I'm gonna capture a Pokémon!'_

 _ **February 11th, 2003**_

It had been about four days since they reached New Bark Town and they already had results in their research. The Pokémon highlighted for their research were Pokémon such as Hoothoot, Ledyba, Sentret and if they could find it, Hoppip. They also managed to find a Noctowl hanging around and he was friendly like most of the others were and didn't mind the duo there, just as long as they didn't hurt any of the Pokémon. Of course, they didn't and just watched what went on with their natural traits or habits, anything that was worth noting was noted by one of them and they had a full page of different notes just a day after they arrived.

They both decided to split up today so they can cover more Pokémon quicker though they both had the same mindset of finally wanted to capture a Pokémon to they went off in different directions and agreed to meet back at the lab in a few hours and to yell if anything goes haywire.

It was about Midday when Leaf decided to take a break by a nearby tree and eat some lunch as she was pretty starved from all the moving around. She brought out a sandwich from her bag and began chowing down on it, savoring the flavor. It was one of Mrs. Ketchum's classics. She always loved the food she made and wondered where she got this talent. She had been debating for a while on getting some cooking lessons from her best friend's mother and decided she would ask once she got back to Pallet Town.

As she was eating, she had a pair of eyes suddenly start staring at her. She didn't seem to notice as these eyes were off to the side, out of her peripheral vision. The creature was eyeing the sandwich with hungry eyes as it dashed from its position and snagged the meal right out of the young girl's hands. She noticed immediately and shouted out, "HEY! THAT'S MINE!" She picked up her bag and started chasing after the one who stole her lunch.

She noticed this Pokémon as it was one of the one's she studied throughout the days she's been in Johto but it was different. The Pokémon was half her height if you wanted to include the tail. Its tail was brown striped and also had a cream color that contrasted the brown. It's body was built in a bulky like state and had two ears pointing upwards. She figured it was a Sentret, but not normal one.

She racked her brain for information and remembered that all Pokémon species have a different color variation that has a very low percentage chance in actually happening at birth. She remembered odds were studied to be 1 in a little over 8000. This was a shiny Pokémon. She couldn't believe her luck, but she wanted her sandwich back and was going to get it. Her longer than normal legs carried her to the Pokémon as she eventually grabbed it and held it up to her face.

She scolded. "Hey you! That's my sandwich, give that back!" The now known, Shiny Sentret, figuring there was no way out without hurting the girl gave up and let her have her sandwich back, albeit reluctantly. "Thank you."

She was about to gulp it down when she heard a slight grumble come from beneath her and noticed the little one she just chased look skinnier than most Sentret she'd seen. She came to the realization that it was hungry and just wanted some food. _'How could I have been this stupid? Poor thing is hungrier than I am and I scold it. Come on Leaf, you love all Pokémon. Give the poor thing your sandwich.'_

She crouched down and handed her lunch over to the hungry Pokémon and apologized for her rude behavior. The Sentret accepted it greatly and thanked the young girl. She smiled at the little nibbles it took out of the lunch she once had and decided to take in the look of the Pokémon below her. She noticed that its whole body was a cream color instead of the usual brown. Other than that, it was about the same, just the brown color replaced. She wondered why it looked a lot skinnier than normal Sentret, but figured it was because of the different skin color.

She then sat at another nearby tree but felt a presence next to her. She turned to find the same Sentret sitting down next to her with a smile on its face. She smiled as well and started scratching behind its ears to which the Pokémon's delight. She couldn't help herself but a laugh a little and started playing around with the Pokémon she recently encountered. The two had fun together for the next hour or so before Leaf noticed sunset was on the horizon and realized she needed to go. She pouted a bit, she didn't want to go yet, but had to.

She kneeled down the scout Pokémon and explained. "I'm sorry, Sentret, I have to go back to the lab now. Why don't you go on back to your friends?"

The Shiny Sentret's eyes widened and shook its head no really quick as if saying it didn't want to go back. Leaf wondered why this notion was so quick from the small Pokémon and questioned. "Did something happen, do your friends not like you?" The bulky scout had a look of fear in its eyes and nodded.

"Hmm." She wondered what to do before she realized her title. She inwardly facepalmed as she completely forgot she could actually capture Pokémon now. But would it want to go with her? She had a lot of fun today with it from playing around to eating food with it, plus its a shiny and she wondered what its evolution would look like, she'd never seen a shiny Pokémon before so she was curious what Furret, Sentret's evolution, could look like.

She then brought out a Pokéball from her belt and told it. "You can come with me if you want. I'm too young to go on a journey right now, but I'm a Junior Researcher. If you want, you can come with me. I love all Pokémon and you are no exception, I'll accept you if you accept me." She hoped it would say yes.

The Shiny Pokémon went into thought for a moment, probably weighing the pros and cons. It came to the conclusion that there were no pros in staying and there weren't many cons in going with the girl that seemed to care for it like all others didn't. So it went up and tapped the Pokéball and tapped the button as it got sucked in. The ball dinged immediately and Leaf couldn't have been happier. She caught her very first Pokémon and it was before Ash! "ALRIGHT!" She shouted out in victory.

She always thought Ash would have been the first one to capture a Pokémon, and he would have if she didn't scold him that day about not capturing the first three Pokémon he found, because knowing Ash, he probably would have found a Pidgey, a Rattata and a Spearow for his first three. Now she could boast about she captured the first Pokémon of the two, assuming he didn't capture a Pokémon already.

Meanwhile with Ash about a couple hundred yards away from Leaf, he's currently doing all he can and jotting down anything interesting that has happened with the Pokémon assigned to him. He really liked the job he has and found learning about Pokémon in the real world is much better than reading about it in a book. That's why he wished he were 10 years old now like that Calvin guy was, but alas, he had to bide his time before he could go out in the world.

He had been out in the wilderness for a couple hours now, nothing major happening, the Pokémon were friendly with him whenever they caught sight of him, probably because he was a little boy and they saw no threat in him. Ash was smarter than most thought of him though and kept his distance and even had a pair of binoculars with him to observe movements from afar if needed be. He can thank Leaf's mother actually for that.

Sunset was now on the horizon and he decided to head back to the lab. Unfortunately, not much happened for him, everything that he noted down was already written by the previous three days. He figured there was more to learn and was going to look even harder the next day. On his solo rounds, he decided to head into the forest to get better observations in more natural environments around the forest instead of the open plains that Leaf explored. He did however, manage to find a couple Hoppip and that was about all that was new during the day; though with his luck, he found them just minutes before sunset hit and he had to be back just after dusk heading into nightfall.

The lab was coming into view as he took in a breath of fresh air, wondering what his mother was cooking him for dinner. He could almost already smell his mom's cooking and started to drool a bit at the possibilities. Eventually he caught himself and wiped the leftover saliva from his lips away. As he was nearing closer to the two story lab, he noticed a blue blob laying down in a corner. He first thought nothing of it, but that same blob started...crying?

Ash got closer to the blob and noticed it was the same Cyndaquil from a few days ago and wondered what it was doing outside so he approached it and asked. "Hey Cyndaquil. Are you okay? What's wrong?"

The fire mouse Pokémon turned around and noticed this was the same kid that came in a couple of days ago, but just turned around and continued to sulk in whatever it was going through. Ash wasn't having any of it and spoke to it softly. "Come on buddy, I wanna know what's wrong. I'm nice, I won't bite and I surely won't leave your side until I find out. No Pokémon should be sad!"

He got a shock though as the volcano on its back erupted to try and get him to run away. Though Ash was persistent and was more stubborn that a Snorlax when it's hungry. He didn't want to force himself onto Cyndaquil, but wanted to help. So he just sat there and talked to it for a while, just about random things like how he's a Junior Researcher and stories of his and Leaf's fun times together.

At first Cyndaquil didn't want to hear Ash's tête-à-tête, and tried to block out the noise, but as he continued on, he became more engrossed in Ash's stories that he told it. Stories as simple as playing around with his best friend to stories about how he came to studying Pokémon and how it wasn't all fun and games, that and the fact he got some bruises at one point studying a Spearow. Life lesson learned, never approach a Spearow without backup.

About 30 minutes talking in, Ash was starting to run out of things to say to the mouse next to him. Luckily for Ash, Cyndaquil finally turned around to face around, while it still looked like a face of despair plastered, it was able to look Ash in the eye now and the young lad took that as a step in the right direction. He opened his small arms as a way to let the Pokémon in. Cyndaquil hesitated but gave in and Ash won this one. He picked up and asked if he wanted to head back in. Cyndaquil reluctantly nodded and the two went inside just before Nightfall hit. It was a nice sight to see.

 _ **February 19th, 2003**_

Over the next few days, Ash and Cyndaquil grew closer. The young boy found out from Professor Elm that Cyndaquil wasn't chosen by upcoming trainers for the last nine times now and it was starting to get to the fire mouse that maybe nobody wanted him. Today just proved that statement according to the fire Pokémon. Ash told Cyndaquil that if he wanted a friend that it had him to come and play with.

Cyndaquil was hesitant at first and wasn't sure if Ash was telling the truth, but after some words reassuring it that it was okay to play with him, the fire mouse bolted at the opportunity and the two bonded like Elm had never seen. When Ash wasn't studying the local Pokémon, the two were playing with each other wherever they went, whether it was outside, in the forest or in the open plains.

Leaf had smiled at Ash's bonding with the fire Pokémon, yes she was paying attention to the bond they were creating while in Johto. She knew Ash would find at least one new friend in Johto and it was the fire starter. Eventually it was the last day the duo were in Johto and another new trainer was coming into pick her first Pokémon. Of course, Elm had the three starters line up, one of which was the one Ash bonded with over the last week or so. The girl apparently already chose which starter she would pick beforehand and Cyndaquil looked hopeful, but she walked past it in favor of Chikorita. One again, it got neglected.

Cyndaquil ran out the door before the female trainer could even get her Pokéball. Ash watched the whole thing, hoping the little one wouldn't get passed again, ten times. That has got to be a record. So he did the only thing he could think of, he ran out the door to find his new friend. He looked everywhere, behind the lab where he first found it, the open plains area where the two played, the forest where he studied his assigned Pokémon, he for the life of him could not find him.

Though he was not giving up, he would never give up until it's over and it was over when he found Cyndaquil was found safe and sound. It took him another hour before he found it high in a tree way off from the lab.

"Cyndaquil!" The Fire Mouse looked down and found Ash standing below him. "Cyndaquil! Please come down! I saw the whole thing! You got neglected again! Well NO MORE! I will take you with me! Just please come down!"

When the fire starter heard it would get taken, it was like a dream come true. It was about to jump down, but realized it jump from another tree and there were no branches to jump down to. He shivered in fear and backed down. Ash noticed this. "Just jump Cyndaquil! I'll catch you!" Cyndaqull wouldn't do it, it was too scared. "Trust me." It heard and looked down to find nothing but compassion and trust in the young one's eyes. So he took a leap of faith and jumped and prayed it would work. It was expecting to feel the hard ground underneath, but it didn't come, instead, it found itself in Ash's arm with a big smile on his face. "See? You could trust me."

That statement brought tears of joy to its eyes and cried in the young one's chest. Ash patted its back and said soothing things to it, and that he would take great care of it. It would never get neglected again like it always had. The two then walked back to the lab to find relieved faces on everyone in the room, (Leaf, Elm and Delia). Leaf embraced her best friend, thanking Arceus he was alright, Delia's thoughts exactly the same.

Before anyone could say anything, Ash spoke up. "Guys, I want to take Cyndaquil with me. It doesn't want to get neglected anymore like it has with past trainers. So I have to ask, Professor Elm, won't you please let me take Cyndaquil back with me to Kanto?"

Elm had a surprised look initially, but gave Ash a smile and said. "I think this little guy has been through enough and needs a home, of course Ash. Let me just get Cyndaquil's Pokéball." He left to get Cyndaquil's Pokéball.

Meanwhile, the fire mouse was just happy. That's the only feeling it felt at the moment. After months of not being taken by upcoming trainers, it was finally getting a home with the one that actually cared and gave it a chance. It vowed it would never let Ash down if it had anything to do with it.

Leaf and Ash's mother had looks of approval on their faces. They were proud of the young man in front of them. That he didn't force his way onto the fire Pokémon, that he took it slow and accepted it for what it was, not just because of a certain aspect Ash wanted. It would be a great first Pokémon for Ash.

 _ **August 16th, 2003** _

Of course when one adventure ends, another one begins. Johto proved a great time, but they eventually had to fly back to their hometown. About 6 months later would prove that their 2nd Pokémon would be soon captured and added to their team. During the six months, Ash was still learning different styles of mixed martial arts from the various fighting type Pokémon while Leaf was getting cooking lessons from Ash's mother to prepare for their journey.

Their bonds with their Pokémon were getting stronger as well, Ash and Cyndaquil already added light training to their schedule, just practicing basic moves like Tackle and Ember. Leaf and her Shiny Sentret were focused on their cooking lessons they were receiving and the two couldn't be more in sink with each other. They could toss different ingredients to each other without saying a word and they would just somehow know when to catch them. Ash couldn't understand how two individuals could be so in sync with each other to catch eggs being tossed around without saying a word. He just shrugged every time.

But now in the middle of August, the day was going as usual. The now 7 year old students were studying under Professor Oak like they always have over the past 27 months when the power suddenly blacked out. Luckily they didn't have a fear of the dark and were just startled when it happened. Be it that it was day time though, only a little light went out in the room, most of which remained thanks to the unlimited energy of the sun.

"Hmm, a blackout. That's unusual." Oak rubbed his chin and just sat there, like he was waiting for something. That something was actually the back-up power generator he had stored in case of situations like this one. After a moment, the power turned back on like everything was normal.

Oak smiled. "That's better, stupid power outage, made it erase 2,000 words I had written down. _*sigh*_ "

"Professor Oak?" Ash asked. "Why was the power out?"

"Not sure my boy. There hasn't been a power outage in Kanto that I know of in quite a few years. The Kanto Power Plant is one of the best in the world in terms of delivering power to the region, second to Kalos I would say. So it hard for me to say we lost power."

Leaf butted in. "You think something happened down there?"

Oak debated the question. "Could be. Last time something like this happened, there were a problem with a few of the Electrode getting shorted out because of a few wild electric types. Wouldn't surprise me if the same happened. And the time before that was a Team Rocket attack. Other than that, there haven't been any power outages due to natural instances."

"I kind of want to check it out! What do you think Leaf?" Ash questioned.

"I think I want to as well. Professor? Can we head down to the power plant? Even if there's nothing wrong, you said you'd take us at some point as like a field trip."

Oak scratched his neck. "Well, I did say that...And since the paper I was writing deleted itself on me. Why not? I need a break anyway. Let me just put my lab coat away and let your mother know Ash."

While Oak was doing that, the duo called their respective Pokémon over and told them they were heading to the power plant as a field trip and they wanted them out to see all the action. Just in case though, they packed extra empty Pokéballs, they never knew when they could see a Pokémon that would catch their eye. Oak returned a couple minutes later and gestured for the kids to enter his jeep he owned for getting around and said they would be arriving there in an hour's time.

The Professor figured he'd turn it to a local news station to see if any other parts of Kanto were out of power. After a couple minutes, he found what he was looking for. "-nd breaking news, we're getting reports from all over Kanto that there has been a region-wide blackout. Every city across the region has citizens reporting of losing power and are furious. A power outage hasn't occurred nation-wide in over 5 years so this is something to look into."

"Seems like Pallet Town wasn't the only one hit by this." Leaf chimed in.

"Yes, I just hope things are alright over there. Luckily I brought Dragonite and Exeggutor with me in case something bad happens."

"Good idea Professor." Leaf commended. For the rest of the ride, they just chatted about possible electric type Pokémon they could find there. Theories about Electabuzz, Electrode to Electrike were flown around. About another hour drive and they were closing in on the power plant but noticed none of the outside generators producing any energy which was strange. Oak had been here dozens of times and had always saw the generators producing electricity. Something was definitely wrong.

Oak had his Pokéballs ready just in case things went south. He slowly opened up the front door to the main area to find that it looked completely abandoned. No lights, no power, nothing, it was too quiet. Ash called out Cyndaquil to use the flame in its back to light up the room. Now that the room was at least somewhat illuminated, they continued on down the path through the large room. Leaf didn't even know what all this stuff did, just knew it somehow connected to the electricity lines throughout Kanto.

There had been nothing for few minutes before they heard what sounded like someone banging on a piece of metal and yelling out help. They took a right down another path to find the voices getting louder until they stumbled on a door 50 feet in front of them where the noise was being created. They ran to open the door to find the crew that worked the power plant was trapped in there.

One of the workers bowed in gratitude. "Oh finally some help. Thank you so much! Wait a minute, you're Professor Oak! It's an honor!"

"It's a pleasure myself. Now would you mind telling me what happened here? I was doing a paper when the whole lab blacked out, I came to see what was wrong."

Another female worker spoke up. "Well...it all happened so fast. We all were doing our usual duties when I saw Travis over here fall to the ground, I thought he was playing a prank before I saw Mike, Jane and Carley fall as well. It was only for a second, but I swore I saw a few people in white with big red R's on their chest and a teal-haired man before inhaling in a strange odor and falling inside the black. Then we all wounded up here ever since. Clock shows its been two hours since we all have been knocked out."

Oak listened in carefully at the full explanation and when the big red R's came into the equation, there was only one possibility. "Mmm hmm. Big red R's. That was definitely Team Rocket alright. They like to do their jobs quick and clean, usually without any witnesses, though it's not unheard of to have them make a public appearance, though in this case, they just got unlucky. Do you have any clues as to what they could have done?"

One of the workers, Travis replied. "Yes, not sure if they knew this or not, but this room is a control room that measures the electricity generated from the various solar panels, wind turbines and electric Pokémon. They drained all of the excess electricity completely and it'll be at least a day or two before power can be restored to the region."

Ash chimed in. "That's a whole lot of electricity, where can they store it all?"

"Well young man, it could have been powerful electric types, maybe a couple generators, my best guess is a mix of both."

Before anyone could say anything, they heard a strange noise behind them. The kids were the first to turn around and their eyes widened, there behind them were two crawling Pokémon that looked in very bad shape. One of which was completely black and yellow with an egg shaped body and a plug thing on the top of its head. It was bipedal and had a electricity symbol on its belly. The other was a blue quad-legged Pokémon with its back legs coated in a black fur finish, along with a medium-sized tail at the end of it. Its eyes were bright yellow to match the extended star shape in its ears.

"...K...id."

"Shi..Shinx."

"A Shinx/Elekid!" Leaf and Ash spoke out of instinct. They looked beat up and terrible so they quickly slid to the Pokémons' sides and picked them up gently. It was clearly visible there were cuts and bruises all over. The most prominent one was across the face of Elekid, a scratch that went from the top of its forehead down to its nose just missing the right eye. Shinx didn't look so hot either and even had a gash of blood flowing freely down its leg leaving a trail from where it crawled from. They were a mess. It looked as though they were trying to release some kind of electric attack but couldn't do it, most likely just from pure exhaustion, or their injuries are too much for them.

"Oh my..." Leaf sniveled, tears already in her eyes. She slid to Shinx while Ash slid down to Elekid. The Pokémon in their arms didn't even try to escape, it looked they could barely move, let alone run away from them.

"Professor! They NEED HELP!" Ash bawled towards the old Oak.

Oak ran to the duo and took a look at the severely injured Pokémon. "They need to be taken to a Pokémon center immediately! They don't have long to live just judging by the looks of it."

"Well what are we waiting for? LET'S GO!" Leaf demanded. Oak was about to head back to his jeep before he took a look back at the power plant workers. They waved him off. "Take them, they need to be treated and this place isn't going to do it. Plus, security cams show we're the only ones here so don't worry about any more attacks, we'll get this place cleaned up. Now GO!" One of the workers, Jane answered Oak's silent question.

They nodded and ran as fast as they could back to Oak's vehicle and floored it to the nearest Pokémon center which was about a ten minutes drive from the power plant. Because of the speed Oak drove at, they made it in six. Oak cared about the wellbeing of Pokémon very seriously and no Pokémon was going to die on his watch, not if he had any say about it.

Once they dashed into the Pokémon center, they explained the situation, yes including the Team Rocket part, as the Nurse Joy with her Chanseys brought out a couple stretchers. Joy gave them a notice not to enter while she was doing her work and told them to go in the waiting area to...well wait.

It was now 18:53 and Nurse Joy still hadn't returned from the back area, they had been waiting for over 4 hours now and not a word from the back. Luckily this Pokémon center didn't get many visitors that day and only one person came in looking for their Pokémon to be healed, an extra Chansey took care of that. Leaf was pacing back and forth in front of Ash and the old Oak. Oak decided to take a nap 2 and a half hours in while Ash just looked worried. They hadn't said a word since they brought the two electric type Pokémon in and the longer they waited, the more anxious they became that something bad might have happened.

"I hope they're alright." Leaf for the first time since they arrived spoke. She looked towards her best friend with a face he hadn't seen...well ever really before today.

Ash nodded. "Me too Leaf. I hope its nothing serious, though by the time passed, I'm not so sure." Leaf's eyes widened and started biting her fingers. She also slightly increased her pace. It was easily recognizable that she was worried for the Shinx she brought in, as well as the Elekid. They eventually passed out in their arms on the ride over to the center and they hadn't woken up since. They just hoped the worst hasn't happened.

Leaf suddenly sent a glare towards the direction of Ash, "Don't say things like that Ash! They're gonna be fine!"

Ash held his hands up in a surrender position. "I'm sorry! I'm just thinking out loud here."

"Then think good thoughts! Don't even say what I think you're thinking!"

"Okay! I'm not thinking it anymore! They'll be... good in no time!" Ash tried to satisfy his best friend, it seemed to be enough.

"Better."

19:11. It's been 20 minutes and not a word has been said. The old man finally woke up after the conflict the duo had a little bit ago and tried to go back to sleep, but couldn't. So he just brought out his Pokédex and played some Tetris to pass time. It was then Nurse Joy finally came out with a face that didn't look so good. Being in there for over four hours, they would hope she had good news.

"Well, you want the good news or the bad news first?" Nurse Joy asked them. They decided to get the bad news out of the way first since they could at least end this on a somewhat good note.

"Bad news is, they aren't looking so good. I did the best I could, got rid of most of the cuts, and the bruises will heal over time. I sewed up the gash on the Shinx's leg, though it took some extra donated blood since it lost quite a bit when you guys found it. I also fixed up the plugs on Elekid's head. It wasn't easy as it took some surgery to do it, that's what took the majority of my time." Ash was about to speak but she wasn't done. "I'm not finished yet. While I was scanning their bodies for any broken bones, I stumbled something...strange."

The three in front of her raised their eyebrows as she continued. "Electric type Pokémon can use Electro-Kinetic abilities thanks to special air sacs in their bodies that can produce massive amounts of electricity if needed. When I took a look at the sacs though, they were completely flat. There's always a spark that happens in those sacs that constantly generates the electric powers they possess, even when sleeping or not using a Pokémon move at all. But their's, are gone."

"What are you saying?" Ash questioned.

"What I'm saying is that no electricity is being produced from their bodies. Which also means that they can't use electric type moves anymore."

The room was silent, you could drop a pin on the floor and it would echo throughout the waiting room. Professor Oak already knew this bit of information so it didn't surprise him, what did surprise him though was that their electric sac shorted out, it takes a lot for that to happen with an electric type. Just what did they go through?

"B-But, they worked for the power plant, what are they gonna do now?" Leaf questioned.

Nurse Joy answered. "I'm sorry, but once those sacs blow out, it is nigh impossible to get them started again. You'd have better odds teaching a Pikachu to use Surf. Team Rocket hurt them pretty badly so they deserve the respite they're getting. I'd say their jobs at the plant have come to a conclusion. I'm sorry."

"What's the good news then? We sure could use some." The Professor asked.

Nurse Joy complied and disclosed. "Good news is that they can still use other moves, and the fact that they'll live. They're just completely exhausted and need a week or two rest. I must keep them here though for at least a week to make sure they're up to standard, but you can come by and check on them anytime you desire. Which includes now if you like." She turned and walked away without another word.

Ash and Leaf nodded as they made their way to the infirmary where the electric type they essentially saved were resting after goodness knows how much pain delivered to them. Leaf ran to Shinx's little dome while Ash went to Elekid's. They didn't know what exactly happened to the yellow and blue electric type Pokémon and quite frankly, they didn't want to know.

Upon closer inspection, they noticed Nurse Joy's words were true. The cuts were gone, but not without leaving a nasty scar as a memory. Elekid's was in between his two electric plugs on the top of its head, while Shinx's was on its left-rear leg. Bruises were salient on their bodies and while they would eventually wash away, it still pained the youngsters to see them in that kind of pain.

Ash wanted to punch something since he was so angry because they got hurt while Leaf was just heartbroken. She felt a million miles away from the Pokémon in front of her, she wished she could have helped it, she had Sentret, she could have done something if they got there earlier, but there was nothing she could do, she knew that. Her best friend was thinking the same thing at the moment. It urked him that innocent Pokémon get hurt for no reason because some evil people want control over everyone. He made a silent vow to get back at Team Rocket one day for this specific instance, no matter how long it took.

Eventually it was time to leave and go back home. They desperately did not want to leave the electric types' sides, but knew better. They said one final goodbye before heading out. Completely oblivious to the two pairs of eyes watching them leave.

Professor Oak had called the power plant and told them the news of the Elekid and Shinx and they couldn't believe it, but they had no use for the electric types anymore since it was a place that generates electricity, something the two electric type Pokémon couldn't do anymore. He got permission to take the Pokémon in and care for them. Luckily for Oak, he already hatched a plan for the Pokémon in the center behind him and it involved a certain two someones.

 _ **August 25th, 2003**_

It had been nine days since the incident at the power plant and Oak's plan was to get under way. It was a fairly simple plan actually, but it would make two students of his very happy. He knew that because they couldn't use electric type attacks anymore, that they were limited in their move pool, especially Shinx since it didn't learn many other moves outside of electric ones. Elekid was a special case since it had one of the most diverse move pools a Pokémon can get in its final evolution stage, Electivire, but without it's electric power, it still would have a hard time against some Pokémon in battle.

He noticed the two youngsters outside having a mock battle which they've been doing quite a bit recently ever since Leaf wanted to evolve her Sentret to see what a Shiny Furret would look like. He still couldn't believe the perfect situation Leaf had in finding a shiny at all. As far as everybody knew, there were no accounts of a Shiny Furret in the world of Pokémon and as such, there was zero documentation on the color variation it had. Like Leaf, he was very anxious to see its colors. And Ash himself got a starter Pokémon of all creatures as his first Pokémon so that's a great catch as well.

As he walked outside he saw Cyndaquil shooting an Ember with Sentret dodging that attack before rushing in with a Quick Attack to do moderate damage. Oak decided to call off the match. "And that's enough!" He proclaimed with a raised hand. The kids looked to him and smiled as they gave their respective 'Good jobs' and 'Great Battles' to each other with the Pokémon showing their respect to one another as well. Oak motioned for them to walk back inside as he was about to get his plan underway.

"So, which one of you remember what happened about 9 days ago?" They had to think for a moment before realizing what nine days ago was before both raised their hands when the memory came to their mind. Oak could see the distress in their eyes from that incident.

"Well, I just got a call from Nurse Joy saying that Shinx and Elekid were in great health and that they want to see the ones who saved their lives. I know I didn't slide and down and pick up those two Pokémon that day. So." He exclaimed as he grabbed his keys. "Ready to meet them again?"

Ash and Leaf's faces beamed as they immediately nodded. What actually happened with Oak was that he had a chat with Nurse Joy and asked if they youngsters could take the electric types when they were fully healed. He explained how he personal gave them the Junior Researcher status and how taking in these Pokémon could provide valuable experience for them in the long run. Joy was surprised to hear they had the Junior Researcher status as that title was hardly ever given out, especially at such a young age, but she wouldn't disagree with the Kanto Professor's judgement so she agreed to his request.

It was Oak's day off so he could technically do whatever he wanted, but most of the time, he was either researching something or doing a class with Ash and Leaf so he had an excuse to take them. It was about a forty-five minute drive before the arrived at the Pokémon center nearest to the power plant where they left the two electric type Pokémon.

The old professor greeted the Nurse Joy working there and she led them to the back room where the youngsters found the two electric types sleeping what seemed to be peaceful sleeps so they just stayed quiet while the former two silently walked back out to the main area.

No words were said, they just sat by and watched the two Pokémon inside the small machines rest. It was a comfortable silence as they just looked on at the two small Pokémon in front of them. Their breathing was slow and steady so they knew they were out. Leaf happened to notice first that their injuries have gone down since the event nine days ago, the bruises were less colored than before and the cuts were mostly gone, but left a nasty scar as a memory that would never wash away. Shinx's leg was still taped up and wondered if it would be able to walk again normally, she just hoped so.

The duo knew they'd never be able to use electric type moves again and wondered how the lives of the Pokémon would be different because of it. Electric type Pokémon were especially reliant on those moves as not every electric type had a massive move pool anyway, especially Shinx's case since a good percentage of its known moves were electric. So to Leaf, not being able to use what they were comfortable with was a scary thought.

Ash was seemingly less worried for Elekid than Leaf was for Shinx. One of the first Pokémon he actually studied was Elekid since they were native to Kanto. While a good majority of Elekid's natural moves were electric, if taught correctly, the Elekid line can learn moves along the lines of Ice Punch, Brick Break, Flamethrower, Rain Dance, the list goes on and on. He worried more for Shinx for practically the same reasons Leaf did.

Almost simultaneously, both Pokémon resting stirred and stretched out, ridding the knots in their muscles from the sleep they were in. When they shook themselves awake, the noticed two humans were watching them and went on the defensive, but after seeing their faces, they calmed down a bit, but were still wary.

Leaf had a look of relief on her face while Ash was just smiling like an idiot. They noticed how defensive they got so they took things easy and slowly approached the Pokémon inside the capsules as to not startle them. They each went to their respective Pokémon they helped out that day and started conversing with them.

They tried to take their minds off the horrible instance that happened prior and just focused on making sure the Pokémon were comfortable. And they learned quite a few things about each other as well. They learned that they had 2 egg moves each, Elekid has Ice and Fire Punch while Shinx has Ice and Fire Fang.

 _'They go well together'_ were the same thoughts of the young junior researchers when they discovered that bit of information.

They couldn't really understand the electric types verbally much and the Pokémon understood that so they did some hand gestures among other things to get their point across. By the end of about an hour and a half or so, all four beings learned a lot about each other. The kids learned that since electric type moves were out of the question, they wanted to prove their worth to the world and be the strongest Luxray and Electivire out there. The Pokémon established the goals of the trainers and with some discussion in a huddle the Pokémon made, they pointed to the Pokéballs on the junior researchers' waistline.

When they noticed the pointing finger/paw, Ash asked. "Wait. You're asking if you want to come with us?"

"Is that true?" Leaf questioned.

To prove their point, they leaped from the table and the Pokémon went into their respective savior's Pokéball about as fast as a Bewear runs on water to catch three idiots falling out of the sky from an explosion. Elekid went to Ash and Shinx went to Leaf.

The youngsters just blinked in astonishment for about a minute before the Pokémon released themselves from the Pokéballs and Elekid had to wave his fist in front of their faces to actually break them from their dumbfounded state.

"Well uhhh...," Ash babbled as he scratched his neck, "tha-that happened." He shrugged, no more words forming in his brain.

Leaf just still blinked. "In a way, we did save them Ash." She explained as she picked up her new electric type, stroking it gently. "It's no wonder why they chose us. We can't take that away from them." She smiled on to her new Pokémon which made the tiny blue Pokémon bark with delight.

Ash nodded as he pounded fists with his new electric type, "Yeah. Plus they're awesome! And even though some moves are blocked, I can't wait to start training to strengthen this little guy up!" Ash finished with excitement evident in his voice.

Leaf giggled at his enthusiasm. "That's Ash for you Shinx. He has the energy of a Tauros on a rampage."

She tried to tease but Ash just embraced it. "Yep! If I could, I'd have unlimited energy!"

She shook her head as she smiled on. "I'm sure you would." She voiced her thoughts as she reached the door. "Come on, we should let Nurse Joy and Professor Oak know." Ash nodded and they walked out together, but not before Elekid climbed up onto Ash's shoulder and gave the kid a thumbs up. Ash gave one back.

Needless to say, the adults weren't too surprised when they discovered the two youngsters had managed to get the electric types to go with them. Though the part on beingcompletely on the Pokémons' accords was a bit of a surprise but nothing that was out of line.

Nurse Joy did one final check-up and told the duo the electric types needed to rest up for about another month or two before they start to train. With their final goodbyes they waved off the local Nurse Joy as they headed home.

 _ **Present**_

It had been just under 22 months since the day they officially capture Elekid and Shinx. Other than some changes, not much happened since that day. Both children grew, with Leaf still about 3 inches taller than Ash, much to the latter's slight chagrin, but he didn't mind all that much. Every once in a while she would tease him and get on her tippy-toes to prove how much taller she was compared to Ash, even though the young lad was technically older than his best friend, if only by ten days.

He pointed that out quite a bit too whenever Leaf would tease him about his height and just like Ash, she pouted and put on a mopey face, but they knew they were only teasing each other, despite it being factual. It never deteriorated their friendship once, they were still best friends to each other and would always stand up for each other if trouble ever pursued.

Of course Gary was always a twit to the both of them, constantly bothering them with all his nonsense about how he was going to be the best trainer the world had ever seen and would be a Pokémon master before Ash even hit Pewter City. They always ignored him, though it did get on their nerves that a lot of the town actually took the little punk's side in things. The only ones who gave the duo support were their mother's, Daisy and Professor Oak, which was quite sad that Gary's own grandfather secretly was rooting for the duo more than his own flesh and blood. Irony there, isn't it?

Of course, they NEVER let the brunette even get a glimpse of their Pokémon. Both knew they would get a never ending sea of Backlash thrown their way and they didn't need that so whenever they saw Gary, they immediately put their Pokémon away so he wouldn't go on a temper-tantrum about their junior researcher status. They didn't want the stress of all that and their Pokémon understood.

Leaf and Ash continued to study under Professor Oak, though they were becoming more independent in their studies, now that they were older. Oak could trust them to get what they needed to learn, done while he was doing his job. Ash was still doing his martial arts training with the fighting type Pokémon while Leaf was still learning the ways of the chef from Delia, those days she Really enjoyed.

In the 22 months since their last capture, they didn't capture a third Pokémon, much to Professor Oak's amazement. Their reasoning was that they didn't want to push their limit and have four Pokémon by the time they started their journey and nothing really peaked their interest around Pallet Town. Nothing that they couldn't capture once their journey started anyway. Ash was tempted many times to just go and capture...something, but remembered his conversation with Leaf a couple years back and thought it was better to wait and see if something of their interest appeared that wasn't common around the area.

Overall, a good couple years for the duo; if you want to exclude the stupid idiot that was Gary. We find our duo running to the Professor's lab now, eager sprouted to their faces as they had a good feeling they knew what was finally about to happen.

"It's been years Leaf! I think today might finally be the day!" Ash exclaimed with no negative emotions in his voice whatsoever.

Leaf nodded. "Yeah! I can still remember that day SO clearly. Eggs, that literally fell out of the sky. That's sounds so corny, but it actually happened and now we finally get to see what they'll hatch into!"

"So. Race?" Ash was hoping he could finally win a race for once, just once he'd like to beat Leaf.

"You're asking me to race? _Okay,_ I'll stop and give you a five second head start. five, four-" Leaf was cut off by Ash sprinting as fast as he could down the pathway. She counted the extra three seconds and the race was on.

Oh Ash tried his best, he really did. But Leaf's unmatched speed eventually caught up to him and beat him to Oak's place by a good five to six seconds or so. He couldn't believe he lost again.

He put his hands on his knees to catch his breath. "Do I even want *breath* to know what *wheeze* the score is *cough* now?" Ash trying to get his heart rate of eighty-nine million down to normal asked with a cough.

Leaf replied with her victory sign. "56-1! WOOO!" She did a small victory dance that Ash couldn't help but chuckle at.

"One day Leaf. One day." He shook his head, his heart rate somewhere normal now as he knocked on the Professor's door to his laboratory/home. There was a 10 second pause before the door open to reveal a friendly face that the duo knew all too well, but looked a lot younger than Professor did.

"Hey Daisy!" Leaf chimed her greetings to her only other friend in town as she ran to give her a big hug. She was a hugger after all, something people close to her knew all too well.

"Hey Leaf, hiya Ash! I'm assuming you guys are here since Professor Oak called. Am I wrong?" She questioned the youngsters in front of her.

Ash shook his head. "Nope, we're here for that exact reason. Just please tell us that Gary isn't here. That would kind of ruin our day." Ash praying Gary wasn't at the lab today.

Daisy replied. "Nope. And thank Arceus he isn't. My idiot brother just doesn't know when to shut up sometimes. Luckily the old man sent him off to Cinnabar for a week since he just HAD to go to the new tanning salon they have there. What a girl."

The girls giggled while Ash just sighed as he pinched the bridge of his nose, that was Gary for you. The dude had an ego the size of a Snorlax and its appetite combined. "Well, I'm just glad he's not my brother, otherwise I'd have to...*gulp* bond with him. And that's sounds nightmarish. Personally I'd take you as my sister over him as my brother, even though I already view you as one."

Daisy smiled and suddenly pulled Ash into an embrace. "Aww, that's so sweet, I think of you two as my little baby siblings too."

Ash went wide-eyed in the embrace while Leaf flustered a little bit, baby siblings? "You do know we're only 4 years younger than you right? You're 13 Daisy." Leaf pointed out the obvious.

Daisy just smiled as she let Ash go. "Still my baby brother and sister all the same. Come on, I know you have been chomping at the bits to see your eggs finally hatch after all this time.

They nodded as they entered the laboratory. It's been their second home in a lot of ways so they knew where practically everything was around the building. They went to the back room that took care of the eggs and noticed Professor Oak typing on a keyboard. Who knows what he was typing, but he noticed the trio enter and saved his documents and turned to the group.

"Ah there you two are. Today is the day we're finally going to watch your two eggs hatch! Oh my, I haven't been this excited to see what's in eggs since..." he paused "well ever really. Mostly because these eggs aren't listed in the Pokémon Eggs directory and I've tripled check that!" The old man actually started to run around his lab a bit, heck even his energy would give Ash a run for his money.

Ash raised an eyebrow and whispered to the girls. "I think the ol' coot had WAY too much coffee this morning."

"Yeah." Both nodded simultaneously and watched the old man run around like he was a Jolteon using agility.

He eventually stopped jumping for joy and composed himself. "Ahem, now, the eggs are still in their incubators and very recently and especially today, they have been shaking very violently and have had faint glows sporadically throughout the day. We could be looking at the hatching anywhere from now to 8 hours from now. I figured I'd call you two here now since the hatchings will happens today and you should be the first one the new baby Pokémon see. Daisy dear, would you mind getting the eggs out of their incubators? I think they could use some breathing room."

Daisy nodded and fetched the eggs out of the incubators and gave Ash and Leaf their respective brown and pink eggs. Now all they had to do was wait for them to hatch. For the next hour or so, they conversed with each other, occasionally seeing a faint glow from one of the eggs or even both at the same time. Oak was busy typing away at his computer while Daisy stayed to chat so the duo wouldn't get bored waiting. But with the looks on their faces, there was zero cases of boredom and she doubted there would be anytime soon.

All of a sudden, they heard a crack and then another almost simultaneously from the other. Since the old Oak was about 8 feet away, he heard the cracking and leaped from his desk and watched in anticipation at the eggs the two youngsters were holding. It seemed they would hatch at the same. The eggs were starting to crack more and more with a faint glow that was constant at the moment they were in. 'Ooohs' and 'Aaahs' can be heard from the Oak family, but Ash and Leaf blocked out the sound waves as they were paying attention to the eggs in front them.

The glow grew brighter and the last crack could be heard before unveiling...

* * *

 **CUT! Ha, you losers thought I was gonna show the Pokémon in this chapter?! NOPE! Okay, I was kidding about the part about you guys being losers, I terribly apologize for that. PLEASE NEVER STOP READING THESE STORIES! I actually love each and every one of you. Not in that way, you sick perverts, but in the familial way. You're all officially my cousins now and I embrace each and every one of you. Awww.**

 **So, I am truly sorry about the two month wait, that's really embarrassing for me. School finals, then Christmas and life just kinda got ahead of me, plus in some parts I just didn't know what to write. Then I'm just like, 'What the hell? I'll freestyle it.' And that's what a lot of this chapter was, just kinda freestyling it a bit, seeing what I can do and I think it turned out fine, it definitely could have been better, but I'm cool with it overall. It's still enjoyable to me and I hope you guys enjoyed it! Also, let me know if there's any grammar errors because knowing me, I'll miss some that seem obvious to you guys.**

 **I won't even give an E.T.A on chapter 3, but in the next chapter, I WILL reveal which Pokémon are in the eggs! I've seen some good guesses so far so keep on guessing and if you get it right, I will give you an internet high-five and shout you out! Anyway, I'm going to sleep now, it's like 1:30 in the morning and I'm tired.**

 **{1} Take a little trip. Take a little trip. Take a little trip. It's so catchy.**

 **{2} I guarantee somebody has this name out there and if you just SO happened to have this name, please don't sue me. I'm just a very tiny boy trying to entertain people with his corny humor and semi-decent writing! I'm gonna get sued watch. :(**

 **{3} If this an actual street somewhere in the world. I give up. I will throw my computer out the window, go get a buzz saw and slice the friggin' thing until I see a billion pieces in the dirt. And then I would burn England down! (Okay, not really, but you still get my rage)**

 **PEACE OUT!**

 **-MidnightJD**


	3. Chapter III: Start the Ignition

**A/N: I'm gonna make this short and sweet since I ramble on enough with these. Once again, I sincerely thank you all for your support on this story and I apologize if I seem to be taking long in between these chapters, balancing out life with all the things I like to do isn't easy. Plus I've been brainstorming new concepts I may or may not somehow fit in with this story of mine. Some are good, some are bad, but that's part of the process, I'm only one person though so cut me some slack. This will probably be my last A/N at the beginning of the chapter unless it's something important. Anyway, enjoy chapter three!**

* * *

 **Chapter III: Start The Ignition**

 _ **October 12th,** **2005**_

The sight inside the research lab was astonishing, to say the least. The blinding white flash could be viewed from even outside the laboratory in direct sunlight. A couple of the casual townsfolk walking by even stopped for a moment to stare upwards inside the research center, wondering what in the world was going on and whether the old coot was doing another one of his... bizarre ways of research.

It was a surreal moment for our duo, though far from uncanny. Because it was now finally time to actually view what was going to hatch from the eggs the duo saved all those years ago. It has been over three years since they actually saved the eggs that fell out of the sky. As bizarre and ludicrous as that can sound to anybody, it did indeed happened. And whether anybody wanted to believe that or not, that was their own problem because the youngsters knew it happened and that's all that mattered.

Their current position was on one of the couches that Professor Oak used for watching his late night television shows. However, this moment was much more breathtaking and in the old professor's opinion, these few minutes should have been broadcasted for the world to see. It wasn't just the fact that eggs were hatching, but it was the fact that two regular, average kids, saved these Pokémons' lives; add to the fact that these eggs are completely unknown to the breeding encyclopedia as their looks didn't match up to any design in there. Oh how it would be once they hatched.

Everybody in the room was on the edge of their seats, including the first Pokémon the duo ever captured, as well as the electric type Pokémon they rescued from the power plant a few months back. All with faces of anticipation and wonder of the mystery of the ones inside the eggs before them.

"Oooh. I cannot wait to see what these eggs will hatch!" Ironically, the one who's gushing over the whole incident more than anybody else in the room was the old coot, Professor Oak. "I haven't had this much anticipation and excitement for anything since the time I caught my Dratini!"

"Yes, we get it grandpa, you've been anticipating this moment for a long while. Now be quiet, we don't need any noise from you!" Oak's granddaughter chastised him and he immediately went quiet. Fearful that he'll get an earful from her if he didn't.

The flash went on for another minute before the first crack could be heard coming from Leaf's egg. The eight beings in the room gasped at the noise and focused their attention to the pink and green egg.

Almost simultaneously, the first crack of Ash's egg got the attention of the beings in the room as well. Was it True Destiny that these eggs were hatching at the same time? The answer to that question would forever remain unknown.

More cracking sound-waves rippled through the medium-sized room as the minutes flew by. The duo has eyes of anticipation and wonder of what these eggs would disperse, Daisy looked on in astonishment and Professor Oak looked ready to literally jump out of his pants. He needs to calm down.

Suddenly the white flash became even brighter than before and before they knew it, there stood two Pokémon that looked completely foreign to everyone in the room with their eyes closed.

One of which was a quadruped-legged Pokémon who's primary color was brown and had a bushy tail the color of ice flakes from the snow. It looked to have a collar around its neck and it had two ears that dropped down towards its face.

The other Pokémon had more of a grassy look to it as its primary colors were green and pink. It looked to have two leaves as hands and had a bulb on top of its head that could somewhat resemble a Bulbasaur's bulb if it were more pink and not as thick.

The brown canine and green grass-like Pokémon opened their eyes and the first thing that came into view were the faces of Ash and Leaf respectively. Each face had a warm smile with eyes of astonishment and happiness that the eggs they saved so long ago have finally brought life into the world.

"Aarf Aarf?/Fo?" Each Pokémon yipped out for the first time and that was absolute gold to the duo. They gently picked up their respective freshly-hatched Pokémon and said their greetings to the newborns.

"Hey. My name is Ash, and you and me are gonna make awesome friends!"

"Hi there little one. My name is Leaf, if you'd like, we can become great friends with each other. How's that sound?"

Both greeted them softly as they didn't want to startle the newborn Pokémon. They seemed to warm right up to the ones they saw first as they nuzzled up to the junior researchers with smiles on their faces.

Daisy just sat there and watched the whole thing with a smile on her face and still couldn't believe how, given the correct circumstances, Pokémon can instantly warm up to a human like that. For some trainers, it can take years for their Pokémon to do what the unknown Pokémon were doing and they bonded so closely within seconds. It was quite a sight to see. As for Professor Oak, he was struggling to contain his giddiness at the two Pokémon he's never seen before and instead of screaming his lungs out, he does it in a much more calm fashion.

"Absolutely amazing! Two new Pokémon completely unknown to me, bonding with my two protégés so effortlessly and so quickly. Truly remarkable! Ash and Leaf, why not scan the two Pokémon and see what they are? The junior researcher dex has the same functionality as the regular Pokedex and is upgraded according to what's discovered. Surely we can't be discovering a whole new species right here and now!"

Both trainers nodded as they explained what their devices did to the newborn Pokémon and scanned them for their dex entries and moves.

 **"Rockruff, the Puppy Pokémon. It's considered to be a good Pokémon for beginners because of its friendliness, but its disposition grows rougher as it grows up."**

 **"Fomantis, the Sickle Grass Pokémon. During the day, it sleeps and soaks up light. When night falls, it walks around looking for a safer place to sleep."**

"Rockruff/Fomantis." Ash and Leaf said with wonder. These Pokémon were just as much, if not more of a mystery to the duo. They had studied hundreds of Pokémon in their time as Professor Oak's protégés and never once had they read or seen anything like the two Pokémon in front of them.

It just goes to show how mysterious and how much unknown is in the Pokémon world.

"These two definitely aren't in my memory. It makes me wonder if the new Alolan region Professor knows anything about these two. I'll have to contact him later. It is the most recent discovered region. Who knows." Oak was more or less talking to himself than anyone else in the room, but the other three just ignored him as they continued to be in awe at the new Pokémon in front of them.

Ash and Leaf's minds were running wild. Both were internally ecstatic at the new Pokémon in front of them and that they were getting to keep them as their own. Ash was curious as to how strong he could possibly make his new Rockruff in front of him, while Leaf on the other hand, wondered if and when Fomantis evolved, how graceful and elegant would it look. Which brought up the question of what would these two Pokémon evolve into.

Of course they were agog to the evolutions of Rockruff and Fomantis. Their research dexes could have easily told them, but in the end, they decided against it so they can have that thrill of wonder of what they would look like and how strong they could become. Oh how jelly Gary would be whenever he found out. That's a secret to be told for another day.

 _ **June 5th, 2006.**_

It's been about eight months since the Pokémon have hatched from their eggs. And today is a monumental day for the world of Pokémon. Today is an event that is so captivating, so astonishing, so extravagant, that even I as a writer of this story am completely fanboying over! It is the day, that our duo begin their Pokémon journey.

Now, originally, they both could have left when they turned ten. Ash's birthday being on May 22nd, while Leaf's birthday being on June 1st. The duo though, were stuck together like glue to two pieces of paper.

Over the last eight months or so, the duo had been growing both mentally and physically, Ash had gotten stronger and has a pretty good build to his body for the age of ten. Leaf has 'graduated' Delia's cooking classes as Ash's mother likes to call them, but told her that there is always more to learn. What she really meant was that she was completely out of ideas for dishes to teach Leaf to cook and didn't want to bother looking up some more for the sake of teaching them to Leaf when she herself didn't even know how to make them, so she graduated!

To kill time, Leaf decided to join Ash in his workouts with the fighting type Pokémon around the area. Of course, since Ash has had a couple more years of training, he was a mentor to Leaf, teaching her skills to use in case something ever happens. Her favorite move is the roundhouse kick to the abdomen as she can do it faster than any other move in her slowly growing arsenal and has knocked Ash off his feet a few times. Each time that happens, she giggles at his expense, but always apologizes like the girl she was raised to be.

Their Pokémon were growing progressively as well, Cyndaquil has mastered Flame Wheel while Sentret has been working on Amnesia to get that Special Defense raise, but hasn't gotten it down quite yet. Leaf would have thought her Sentret would have evolved by now, but she figures that going out on a journey will be the best option for him.

Surprisingly, or unsurprisingly enough, Elekid and Shinx only knew electric type moves back at the power plant. Yeah. One can see the problem there. And since they physically can't use electric type moves anymore, they were starting from scratch. Each trainer started off by having the Pokémon learn Quick Attack and Tackle for Elekid and Shinx respectively to get a foundation going. Once those moves were fine and dandy, the duo went on to teach them their respective ice type move of Ice Punch and Ice Fang. With the right training and a lot of creativity, they managed to get them to learn their ice type moves. Their trainers figured it'd be a great addition to their arsenal of moves.

Lastly, since their third Pokémon that hatched from the eggs were newborns, they decided to give them an official name. They had previously asked the others if they wanted a name or nickname but all four politely declined. The duo didn't really know the reason, but went along with it anyway. For Rockruff, Ash chose the name Kaz and the furry rock type actually loves the name. Fomantis had a bit more complication for her name as Leaf went through five different names before Fomantis finally agreed to the name Gaige.

Rockruff, or Kaz as he's now called, is a very...eccentric Pokémon, to say the least. Over the last eight months, Kaz has proven that he is completely loyal to Ash, but at the same time, he is VERY outgoing. Kaz always tries to get the attention of the other Pokémon, trying to show off all of two moves it has, which are Bite and oddly enough, Thunder Fang, which is an egg move. What a small world.

It got on the nerves of a lot of the Pokémon around the ranch area so Kaz didn't make many friends. His best friend is the Fomantis that hatched along with him and even she has a hard time putting up with him. Fomantis, or Gaige, is a practical polar opposite to Kaz, she's mostly a quiet and tranquil Pokémon that is more introverted than anything. Gaige is completely loyal to Leaf, respects Ash just as much and is the one who bit the bullet and became Kaz's best friend, even though she has a hard time with him a lot of the time. But she is a good friend to him and Kaz the same.

Today however, is June 5th, which means that is now time for the next five trainers to head out on their journey. Every other month on the 5th of that specific month, five trainers who have recently turned ten, are to set out on their journey into the Pokémon world, and it just so happens that our favorite duo has recently turned ten and are on the list of the next selected trainers to venture off with complete freedom in their hands.

Ash, Leaf, the twit Gary, along with two other trainers have been selected to be this month's trainers officially receiving their Pokémon license. Of course, even though Ash and Leaf have captured Pokémon already, excitement was coursing through their veins as they were preparing for their journey. Both had a mutual agreement to meet up at Professor Oak's lab to get the upgrade from junior researcher to full-on trainer. Oak even mentioned that there was a bonus for the two of them and that they would stay a little later to get it. You didn't have to tell them twice.

We now head to Ash's house as he was currently equipping everything he needed onto himself and into his backpack. His attire consisted of black and white shoes, a pair of black jeans, a plain forest-green T-Shirt, along with a blue jacket with short white sleeves. Of course, who can forget his signature Pokémon World League Expo baseball cap. Limited edition, number 76 out of 100. It only took Ash about a million postcards sent in, but it was worth every single one. That hat meant something to him and he was going to take it on his journey for good luck.

"Ash dear! Are you almost ready to go?" A female voice came from downstairs outside his bedroom.

"Yeah Mom! Just making sure I have everything!" Ash called back. Ash took one last look at himself in the mirror he had and nodded. He swung his backpack over his shoulder and slid down the staircase handle to make faster time.

Ash figured his mother was in the kitchen as he could smell the aroma that almost made him drool. He contained himself as he walked in to the sight of his mother. He took another whiff of the air around him. "Mmmm. Smells amazing Mom! Even better than usual. What exactly are you making?" He didn't realize it, but he was drooling at this point as he sat himself down at the table.

Delia giggled as she replied. "Only your favorite young man. Two scrambled eggs coated with a layer of cheese, one sausage patty, three slices of bacon, an egg omelet and..." As if by magic, two slices of bread popped out of the toaster as Delia held up the plate and caught them perfectly. "Two slices of toast. My boy needs his energy and protein and what better way to send him off than with a nice breakfast. Enjoy."

"Thanks Mom! You're the best." Ash exclaimed as he started digging into his food. See originally, Ash was a real sloppy eater, hoarding down every ounce of food within seconds. But about a year ago, his mother and Leaf had a..."discussion," if you want to call it that, about teaching Ash some manners about eating. Ever since then, he's been trying to eat at a better and slower pace than what he once was eating. Poor Ash.

After about five minutes, (he was still a fast eater, that's something that will never change) he finished his plate and offered to clean, but his mother politely turned him down, saying that it was part of the job of being a mother. After that, Ash doubled checked his backpack to make sure he had everything and set it down by the door.

"Hey Mom, I'm heading out to meet Leaf at Professor Oak's! I'll come by once more to say goodbye and pick up my stuff! See ya in a bit!" He explained as he ran out the door.

Delia knew he'd be back so the only thing she did was smile at the energy he had as she continued doing her daily dishes.

The duo had already planned to meet up at Professor Oak's lab the night before so Ash kept trekking on down to the ranch. About halfway through his casual walk however, he decided to let out his Cyndaquil, Elekid and Kaz the Rockruff, out for some fresh air and walk alongside him. Kaz, being the overly affectionate Pokémon that he is, ran right up to Ash and rubbed his head on his shin.

Ash smiled and bent down to pet him. "You're cute buddy. But now we have to get to the lab so I can officially become a trainer and get my Pokémon license. Let's just take a walk for now. Alright?"

"Aarf!" Kaz nodded his head and continued to walk alongside him. Of course Ash gave equal amounts of love to his Cyndaquil and Elekid, both whom really enjoyed it.

It was about 9:30 in the morning when he arrived. He was walking up the staircase to the lab when he noticed his best friend already sitting there waiting for him, along with a completely new outfit he had never seen her wear before. She had on a new pair of shoes that were white with a red stripe running horizontal along the middle of each shoe. Baby blue socks that reached just below her knees. Her main clothing consisted of a blue sleeveless blouse, the same hue as her socks, with a red skirt that reached her mid-thighs. And what surprised Ash the most was that she was wearing the white and red sunhat he gave her for her tenth birthday.

Ash smiled and waved as he walked up the final steps and greeted her. "Hey Leaf! You're early, I didn't expect you here for another ten minutes."

Leaf flashed a smile back to her best friend. "Yeah, well I couldn't exactly just sit tight in my house so I came here a little early, I only arrived a couple minutes before you though so I didn't wait long."

As they were talking, Kaz and Ash's other Pokémon went and greeted themselves with Leaf's Pokémon. Each Pokémon had their own best friend and they were ones the duo caught at the same time, Elekid with Shinx, Cyndaquil with Sentret and Kaz with Gaige. They were all friends with each other obviously, but those were each other's best friends.

"I think we should put our Pokémon away before the twit shows up." Leaf mentioned to Ash as he was about to ring the bell.

Ash had a disgusted look on his face, he knew exactly who the twit was. "Ugh, you're right. I can't believe I almost forgot. Do you guys mind if you stay in your Pokéballs for a while so you know who doesn't see...actually wait, this could be a good time to actually rub it in Gary's face and maybe shove his ego down a notch or two. You up for it Leaf?"

Leaf pondered at the thought. "Hmm. I don't know. On one hand, not mentioning it to Gary will just have him mock you and being the perv he is, try to take me with him. On the other hand, showing off our Pokémon could do what you said and even make him jealous." She came to the conclusion of, "Yeah let's do it! We've been hiding it long enough and how good will it feel to rub it in his face that we got Pokémon YEARS before he did! He'll be so mad, serves him right for how he treats us!"

Ash was glad she was on the same page. "Great minds think alike Leaf, and we have great minds!" He stated as he high-fived his best friend. "Oh yes we do."

And with that, Ash rang the doorbell for the Professor to let them in. It was about a 30 second wait and he was about to ring it again before the old Oak appeared before them. "Ah! My star pupils! Please come on in!"

He stood aside and let them in. The duo entered and noticed a bit of clutter around the lab. Apparently Oak knew what they were thinking as he explained to them, "Sorry about the mess. A couple of wild Pokémon, a Pikachu and a Vulpix preferably just came running in here out of nowhere and started causing havoc! I had no choice but to capture them as the Vulpix burned some of my papers, which luckily weren't too important, and the Pikachu was chewing on some wires! Not the greatest start to a morning, but at least I had my adventure for the day. Come, come, the other to-be trainers won't be arriving for another thirty minutes or so."

The duo nodded as the headed their way to the nearest couch and comfortably got themselves situated. Oak got on the computer that was near and started typing...some sort of document. Seriously, how many computers does this guy have and why is he writing documents all the time? The life of a Professor.

Leaf decided to break the silence with a curious question. "So how many other kids will become trainers today Professor?"

Oak stopped typing, turned and replied. "Three others including Gary. Two of whom you haven't met before as they come all the way from Cinnabar Island."

Oak continued. "I know you two expected an official starter Pokémon as all new trainers should get, but do you think you can pass and let the others have them? These kids have been waiting just as long as you two have and are eager to get a Pokémon. You two have three already."

They didn't expect that, but understood the Professor's reasoning and they weren't gonna hold others back when they already got their technical starters plus two more. They both agreed. "Sure Professor, if others can succeed by having a starter, I'm all for giving up a Pokémon for them." Ash explained with determination.

Leaf agreed with his statement and added on. "I'll be honest, I've always wanted a Bulbasaur, but I'm not going to be selfish and take one for myself and let two others sulk about not getting a starter. It's perfectly alright with me." She finished with a smile.

Oak nodded and brought a hand to his chin. "Mmm hmm. Some wise words from ones at such a young age. I am proud of you both, Delia and Natty raised you two well."

It was about that time that Daisy entered the room. "They did indeed raise them well, I'm so proud of you both too." She said with a smile.

Of course, the duo beamed when she walked in the room. "Hey sis! It's good to see you. Eheh and thanks for the kind words." You can see Ash's face had a tint of red as he had his hand around his neck in somewhat embarrassment from the praise.

Daisy just laughed and took off his hat and gave him a noogie. "Aww, is little Ash getting a bit flustered and embarrassed?" Leaf couldn't help but giggle at the sight in front of her, it was times like these that she was grateful Ash and Daisy were her only friends, it made moments like this one more special. Of course, she was hoping that she'd make more friends along the way on her journey, but Ash and Daisy were enough for her.

The Pokémon just looked on in amusement and Kaz even joined in on the fray. Or he would have if Gaige didn't hold him back. Despite her small and petite arms, they were quite strong, strong enough to hold Kaz back at least.

Eventually Daisy let the poor boy go and it seemed that he had even messier hair than before, but he didn't even bother to fix it as he put his signature cap back on, right where it belongs, along with a grin the size of a Cheshire cat. Even though he was a bit embarrassed before, he couldn't help but smile.

And with that, the next 20 minutes or so went on in computer typing and casual chat between the duo and Daisy. The clock struck 9:50 when the front door was unlocked and kicked in. Who came in you might ask? None other than the stupid idiot of Gerri Oak himself.

"IT'S GARY OAK YOU IMBICLE! GET IT RIGHT!" He seemed to yell out of nowhere.

Oak was just downright confused. "Um...Gary, who exactly are you screaming at?"

Gary seemed to pop back into reality and had just as much, if not more confused face than Oak did. "Huh. I have no idea. But that doesn't matter!" His confusion was gone as soon as it came. "I, Gary Oak, future Pokémon trainer and Master, am here to get his first Pokémon."

Dude had the most dramatic pose he could come up with, which honestly wasn't much. Ash and Leaf just laughed at his expense while Daisy was trying to hold her giggles in, but failing miserably. Gary seemed petrified at this and continued to yell. "Don't you DARE laugh at your king, Ass and Leaf. You will bow down and appreciate my mere presence!" He finished holding his arms out.

"GARY! WATCH YOUR MOUTH YOUNG MAN! I raised you better than that and don't you ever call Ash what you called him again, got it?!"

Gary somewhat retorted back. "B-but that noob called me Gerri! It only seems fair I can call him Ass!" Look who's talking Gerri.

"If I hear that word one more time come out of your mouth, I will make sure you never get a starter Pokémon! Now go sit in the corner and wait until the other trainers arrive!" Oak was livid.

"But...But."

"NOW!"

Gary didn't want to risk getting his license suspended and never getting a Pokémon so he just glared at everybody and went into the next room. Most likely to either sulk or get the rage of a wild Tauros. Whichever was a win.

Once he left the room. Leaf snorted as she couldn't hold it in anymore. "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" She didn't even care if Gary heard her laughter, just the fact that Gary got his "Ass" handed to him was enough to make her hysterical and she literally couldn't control herself as she rolled on the floor laughing.

Eventually Daisy and Ash joined in as Leaf's laughter was always contagious whenever she laughed. A couple of minutes later, things died down as they got their laughter under control. Oak just sat there with a smile on his face, watching the three kids in front of him have a good time, even at the expense of his grandson. Which to be fair, he thought the boy deserved it. Gary was probably fuming right now in the next room, but couldn't walk out there and tell them off, otherwise he'd risk getting his starter revoked.

Things pretty much went back to normal after their good bout of laughter and it was another few minutes before the clock struck 10 and the doorbell rang. Oak got up to answer and the three could hear a greeting which meant someone was here for them. He stepped to the side like he did with the duo earlier and in came two kids who looked to be the same age as Ash and Leaf.

The boy looked to be of an Asian decent. His eye color was hazel and his attire consisted of a black and red jacket with a diagonal line running down the middle, making one sleeve completely black, while the other completely red. His shoes seemed to be just casual walking shoes and his pants were dark blue jeans that looked to be brand new. Also his hair seemed to be growing out a bit, with it lying on his neck line and it stood out with the dark orange color.

The girl's look was completely different. Her eye color was green and it seemed to match with her honey colored skin-tone. Her attire consisted of a light-brown heavy coat with four pockets noticeable, two under the collar area and two just above her waist. She seemed to have black cargo pants with her shoes looking to be a black and blue color. What was most interesting was her choice of hair style, she seemed to go with a shabby pixie-cut style of hair and it looked to be trimmed recently. Her face was clear of any blemishes and she looked quite pretty for the age of ten. She seemed to scream confidence.

"Welcome to the lab, sorry about the mess, a wild Pokémon problem. I'd like you two to meet my star pupils of Ash and Leaf."

"Hi there!" The boy waved with a smile.

The girl showed a small smile as she greeted them too, "Hi." She seemed shy, according to Leaf.

"And these two are Grayson and Katrina, they'll be starting their Pokémon journey today as well. GARY! You can come out now!" Oak suddenly yelled for his grandson.

Gary came out a second later and noticed the two new kids that came in. "Who are these losers? You know what, forget I asked, can I receive my starter now?!" Gary asked impatiently.

Grayson just rolled his eyes and ignored Gary's words while Katrina seemed a little offended by that offhand jab towards them.

"Just for that Gary, you're choosing the one Grayson and Katrina here don't!" Gary was just on a roll today of making people angry at him.

"HEY!" He shouted out. "That's not fair! I'm your own grandson, I should be choosing first! Not these two noobs."

Grayson seemed to speak up. "If by noob, you mean a person inexperienced in any subject and is extremely annoying and stupid, I think that would define you." He finished pointing at the young Oak.

"WHAT?!" Gary got right in Grayson's face. "DO NOT TELL ME YOU JUST CALLED ME A NOOB?! I, the great Gary Oak, am not stupid or annoying and I am light years ahead of you in Pokémon experience. I'm light years ahead of everyone in this room!"

Grayson wasn't backing down. "Newsflash you jerk, I happened to be raised on a farm that was a safe haven for Pokémon breeding! I know I have a heck of a lot more knowledge in this brain than your brain times ten! You wanna test me? I got all day! Any question, bet I can answer it!"

"Fine! I WILL test you, you jacka-" Gary covered his mouth before he said something he knew he would regret and just sighed and continued on. "What is the average height of a Rhyhorn? In inches?" Gary smirked at this, no one knew the height of a rhyhorn.

Grayson just laughed. "You're starting out with something as basic as that? Psh, fine, thirty-nine inches. Oh and before you ask me about its weight." Grayson added with Gary shutting his mouth, "About two-hundred and fifty pounds." Gary fumed at that answer, how did he know?

Ash, Leaf, Daisy, Professor Oak and the new girl Katrina were just watching on as these two rambled on for what seemed like forever, but really was only about another two minutes before Katrina finally intervened. "Oh my Arceus. If you two don't SHUT UP so we can actually pick our starters, I'm gonna knock you up side your heads!"

Grayson and Gary just gave each other one last glare before turning their backs to each other with their arms folded.

Oak just sighed as he finally spoke. "Now that your quarrels are out of the way, can we please just move on to you guys choosing your starters?"

Gary obviously spoke up. "THANK YOU! Goodness, my cheerleaders outside must be getting annoyed at me waiting. I could have used this time to actually be training my Pokémon, but thanks to this loser here." He pointed at Grayson. "It made me lose valuable time. Now can we PLEASE pick already?!"

Oak was about to say he just said that but thought against it, it just wasn't worth it at this point. "Right, you five this way." He pointed towards the next room over. They all nodded and went into the next room where a podium stood in the middle.

Oak got behind it and explained as the Pokéballs rolled up to the top of the podium. "Inside these three Pokéballs are the three various Kanto starter Pokémon you can choose from. Inside one is Bulbasaur, a grass type. Inside the next is Charmander, a fire type, and inside the last one is Squirtle, a water type. Now, since Ash and Leaf have already volunteered to sit out of the main three, Grayson, Gary, Katrina, you will each choose one starter. Choose wisely as this will be your very first Pokémon and your partner throughout your journey. Grayson, Katrina, which one of you will choose first?" Oak finished with a question.

Grayson pointed to the podium. "Go ahead Katrina, ladies first."

Katrina gave a small smile and muttered to herself. "What a gentlemen." She walked up to the podium and stared down at the three Pokéballs in front of her. One of these three was going to be her lifelong partner, she had to choose wisely.

She's thought long and hard about this and doesn't want to make the wrong choice. She settled on her choice. "Okay then. I choose Charmander." As she grabbed Charmander's Pokéball.

Oak nodded. "Excellent choice young lady. Charmander will make a fine partner for you, Grayson, you're up next."

He smiled as he stepped up. "Alrighty then. Now I have two choices here, a Squirtle and a Bulbasaur. Both are fairly competent Pokémon and each could be a contender against anybody. While they don't have the flight advantage a Charizard gets, I can work around this with either choice. And there's even some advantages of having a ground zero Pokémon. Who to choose though? A squirtle, wartortle and Blastoise all have a moving advantage, but go up against common types that are weak to it. Bulbasaur, Ivysaur and Venusaur are almost the same but can heal themselves with the right training. And unless trained properly, the Venusaur is more for actually healing Pokémon and making them feel better, despite its over six foot height."

Clearly Grayson is a boy of many words, and he loves to think out loud. "With that said, I choose Bulbasaur!" He smiled as he grabbed Bulbasaur's Pokéball.

Gary smirked as he grabbed Squirtle's Pokéball. "Guess it worked out in the end anyway, Squirtle was my choice all along." He turned towards Grayson. "I don't know whether to thank you or slap you so I'll just take my leave now. Gary Oak is on his first steps to becoming a Pokémon Master! Later losers." He showed a half-wave as he walked out the front door.

They suddenly heard what sounded like cheering. "Gary, Gary, he's our man, if he can't do it, no one can!" The cheering faded as the sound of a vehicle was driving away.

Ash just looked at the Professor curiously as he caught a glimpse of Gary driving away in a red convertible. "Um, Professor...did you know Gary has a convertible?" He asked with more curiosity than anything.

Oak had even more confusion plastered on his face. "Uhh, no, no I did not. I swear though, if that boy took money out of my account." He shook his head. He would have to check that later.

Leaf added in. "I'm just surprised he didn't notice our six Pokémon, they were right with us the whole time."

It was true, Kaz, Gaige and the others were all sitting patiently by their trainers the entire time. They didn't make a peep since there was quarrel in the room and they found it amusing watching Gary get treated like that.

"Anyway, Ash and Leaf, you two will stay after I've finished with Katrina and Grayson here, I have a surprise for you two for being my students. Please wait here while I do my duties as a Professor."

The duo nodded and just sat back down on the couch while the other two walked into the room they were in beforehand. It only took about a minute or two before everyone walked back in.

Grayson decided to make some small talk. "So, you two gonna be travelling Kanto right?"

Leaf nodded. "Sure are. Maybe we'll meet up again and have a battle!"

He smiled and held out his hand. "You two seem much more friendly than that Gary guy. I look forward to seeing you around."

Ash gave him a firm handshake. "You got it Grayson! We'll be sure to meet again sometime."

Leaf noticed the other girl standing a bit away from the rest of the group so she walked over. "Hey Katrina. You alright? You haven't really said much, is something the matter?" She asked with concern laced in her voice.

Katrina took a second before replying. "I'm fine. Just not used to being around a lot of people at once."

Her voice sounded small so Leaf reassured her. "Yeah I know the feeling. Growing up, Ash and Daisy over there were my only friends. A lot of Pallet Town took Gary's side for whatever reason, saying he was future Pokémon prodigy. But that was fine, I still had my mom, Ash and the other two Oaks over there. They kept me going."

"Well I should head out, I wanna get a head start." Katrina replied.

"Wait! At least let me give you my number. Our Pokedex has a unique calling feature that acts like a phone. Here, I have a pen and paper." She went over to the table and got the items she needed as she wrote her number down on it.

She handed the paper to her. "Here's my number, if you ever need some advice or just wanna chat? Hit this number up and I'll help you in any way I can." She finished with a smile.

Katrina was hesitant but eventually grabbed it. "Alright, thank you. Leaf." The sides of her lips were slightly slanted upwards as she took the paper from Leaf. She left without saying another word.

She walked back to the group and noticed Ash and Grayson were finishing their conversation. "Sure Ash, I'll call this number if I'm ever itching to battle or just chat. See ya man!" Grayson waved as he walked out of the room. But not before saying. "See ya around Leaf!" And with that he walked out. Looks like Ash had the same idea.

Oak then decided to speak up. "Now, I asked you two to stay because I'm giving you a special type of Pokédex designed for graduating junior researchers." He explained as he pulled out two new Dexes that looked completely new to the duo. "This, is the X2. These things are Prototypes so feedback is always welcomed. Developed by the same companies who cooperated in designing the Pokedex, this neat device has everything you could ever need in such a small case. The original Pokedex itself, a video chatting feature that can call any number, a GPS, and more features I'll let you two discover on your journey. Basically, it's a combination of the Pokedex and the Xtransciever, hence why the name is X2. It's still in Alpha stage so there might be a few glitches that can be fixed later. Go ahead and try it on."

He finished his long description of the neat device as he handed Ash a Black and Red X2 and Leaf a Black and Green X2. They put it on and immediately they felt a small prick in their wrists. It didn't hurt, just a small sting. Oak seemed to notice and explained. "Right now, your X2 is taking your DNA and merging it with its system. That way, if ever lost or stolen, no one will be able to crack the codes behind X2 as it needs to match your wrist and DNA. Pretty neat huh?"

"I'll say, this is incredibly awesome Professor! Thank you so much!" Ash showed his gratitude.

"I agree, thank you so much Professor. I'll make sure to keep it safe." Leaf finished.

"Glad you like them. Now, I do have one more favor to ask you and you don't have to say yes, but it would make the process easier. Remember how I mentioned I had a Pikachu and Vulpix running around earlier?"

The duo nodded, of course they remembered, the mess was still a mess. "Well, would it be too much to ask if you two could take them off my hands? With your experience with Pokémon and the fact you can defend yourselves in case things go awry, it just seems like the right choice. Plus you aren't held back by the junior researcher rule, now that you have your Pokémon licenses."

Having another Pokémon on their team could be beneficial, seeing as though if they could tame them, they could be key Pokémon. That was the thing though, what if they couldn't tame them? That's quite the risk as a Pikachu, with enough training could sprout out over a hundred-thousand volts of electricity, and a Vulpix could spew out embers the temperature of twenty-five hundred degrees. But that was with intense training, the average Pikachu and Vulpix will shoot out roughly ten-thousand volts and five-hundred degree heat respectively, still very high amounts all things considered.

Leaf made up her mind, "Alright then, I'll take the Vulpix!" Her eyes filled with will and determination.

Ash was about to complain that he wanted the Vulpix before his thoughts took back over and realized that he already had a fire type on his team. And Elekid physically couldn't shoot out electricity so there was no harm in having a Pikachu. He eventually settled and gave his answer. "Alright, I'll take the Pikachu!"

"You do not know how much gratitude I have towards you two. Let me grab their Pokéballs." He left the room, but came back a few seconds later. "Here you are. I would recommend not releasing them in here as they caused a huge mess even bigger than what was seen beforehand. Luckily Daisy is helping me clean that up. My best suggestion is releasing them somewhere out in the forest, if they run off, at least it won't be around here and that makes things even easier for you two. But if they do stay, be very cautious. They may look cute, but Pikachu and Vulpix can be very dangerous Pokémon and can cause a lot of damage."

He looked over at the mess that Daisy was helping clean. "Case number one right there." He really should help her out, this wasn't great representation to the kids.

Leaf reassured him. "We'll be cautious Professor, Ash has dealt with fighting types on a daily basis over the last few years and me as well more recently. If you can deal with those knuckleheads, you can surely deal with the ones in these Pokéballs."

Oak nodded. "Just be careful." Another thought appeared on Oak's mind. "Oh, this almost slipped my mind, but the status of junior researcher really gives a lot of benefits, you got to capture Pokémon early, you have the next generation of the Pokédex, and you're carrying limit has been increased to eight slots instead of six, however, same rules in battle apply, maximum of six Pokémon."

Ash and Leaf wondered if there were any More benefits to being a junior researcher than all they got, it just seemed like more and more kept popping up as time went by, but they weren't complaining. They thanked the Professor once more and promised to call him once they reached Viridian City for updates.

They said their respective goodbyes to Daisy as well as she was their big sister in a lot of ways and got one last hug from the young teenager, with her giving Ash one more noogie as her send-off. Again, Ash couldn't help but laugh at her antics.

Once outside the lab. The duo discussed that they would meet once more at the beginning trails of route one to officially start their journey. They both still had to get their backpack and satchel ready as they left them at their respective houses. So they split up and walked back to their houses.

When Leaf arrived, she announced to her mother that she was now an official Pokémon trainer. Her mother, Natalia Green walked in and said, "My baby girl is growing up. It seemed like only yesterday you were just a tiny baby in my hands and look at you now, such a beautiful young lady. I'm gonna miss you so much."

"Oh mom." Leaf couldn't help but tear up a little bit as she embraced her mother in a hug. As her mother was relatively short and Leaf having height genes on her side, their height was about equal. Leaf still wondered where she got her height from as she is still three inches taller than her best friend and is already head level with her mother.

Nevertheless, they poured as much love into their embrace as they could, as this would be the last one for a while. Leaf really did love her mother, she was one of the only ones that stood by her side growing up and she would be forever grateful. It eventually had to end as Leaf picked up her satchel and said one last goodbye to her mother because heading out of the front door.

But not before she exclaimed. "And make sure to knock some sense into that head of Ash's. The boy's a keeper for you." She finished with a wink.

Leaf's face couldn't help but turn red at what she was implying and started walking away even faster. Of course those were her mother's last words to her as she was walking towards her complete freedom. Oh poor Leaf.

Natty couldn't help but watch her only daughter walk off into the world of Pokémon. She was so proud of her daughter and wouldn't give her up for anything. Eventually all she saw was dirt road so she headed back into her house to read a book of some kind. As Leaf was walking by Ash's house, she saw Ash sprint out the door with embarrassment written all over his face.

She even heard his mother say, "But it true Ash, you can't deny it! Also don't forget to change your underwear every day young man."

Ash covered his ears and started babbling nonsense. "AHHHHH! Lalalalala can't hear you. Lalalala can't hear you. Lalalalala can't hear you!" He would have kept going if he didn't see someone out of the corner of his eye before eventually spotting Leaf walking up to him with giggles escaping her mouth. He just continued to walk forward, hoping to get out of ear shot from his mother.

Leaf caught up to him and obviously asked. "Do I want to know?"

Ash shook his head. "No. Just more nonsense my mom's talking about that I DO NOT want to hear. Anyway, you all packed up and ready?" Ash surely changed the conversation quickly, but Leaf wasn't going to push him on the previous subject.

"Yep! I'm all ready." And with that, they ventured off into route one, officially starting their Pokémon journey.

* * *

 **Okay, I know I am the worst writer on the history of the planet. Four months without an update is unacceptable, and I really have no good excuse. School has been a kick in the teeth lately and I just got a job recently working at a bike shop and that's been taking up numerous hours per week. I have had a few free hours everyday though, just up until now, I haven't really been writing anything. Mostly because I didn't have any ideas as to what to write. But then a couple days ago, I went back and started really thinking of ideas for this story and how it all could play out. I thought up some OC's for this story that you guys will love, or hate depending on the character and I really think they're unique and you guys will appreciate the character, no matter if you love or hate them.**

 **Now I'm only one writer, obviously no chapter of mine will be perfect and I can't recognize every single flaw in this chapter so I do like constructive criticism. If you see a word error or a spelling error I missed, point them out in the review and once I get a couple, I'll go back in fix them. I didn't leave much of a cliffhanger though, but I promise you guys, the easy chapters are done. A lot more action will be taking place in future chapters, I just needed a foundation to set it all off. A good story has a base and I have that with the first three chapters.**

 **Also, how do you guys like Grayson and Katrina? Of course, I didn't give TOO much to their characters as those details will remain to be seen, but just judging by first impressions, how are each? Good? Bad? Needs tuning? Let me know. I got motivation now to write so hopefully chapters will be going up at a quicker pace and I can't thank you all enough for being patient with me. Life sucks, that's fact, we just need to find some good times to make it worth it.**

 **ONE MORE THING! Shoutout to SN7 for actually getting their guess correctly on one of the eggs. He/she actually guessed Fomantis! And they were one of the first to review my story. Props to you buddy. :)**

 _ **-MidnightJD**_


	4. Chapter IV: Laying the Smack Down

**Chapter IV: Laying the Smack Down**

 _ **June 5th, 2006**_

It's about 11:30 in the morning which means Ash and Leaf have been walking for about roughly 30-45 minutes. As they walked out of Pallet Town, they started playing with their new high-tech toys called the X2. They've already found all the features that Oak mentioned in the X2, the GPS, which Pokémon they captured and which were currently on their team, the Pokédex itself and who knows what else. They seemed really invested.

Of course, they had their Pokémon walking by them at their sides, well almost all their Pokémon. The Pikachu and Vulpix they received from Professor Oak were still in their Pokéballs. They wanted to be out far enough into the forest to where if anything happened, nobody would get hurt and they didn't want to risk them going back to the lab in case they ran off. So they decided that after about a little over a half hour of walking, they would finally let the wild Pokémon out of their capsules.

They found a small clearing and decided to take a couple minute break to rest up and finally see these two Pokémon they received.

Leaf was first to speak up. "Ah. This is a nice area to take a small break." She finished while stretching out her arms above her head.

The older boy nodded. "Yeah. And this could be a good place to release our two new Pokémon as well."

Leaf's face paled for a moment. "Oh right...I almost forgot about them." She paused for a moment. "I don't know if I'm ready for this, I mean Oak said that they were pretty wild and could be very dangerous."

Ash was always good at soothing Leaf's worries as he place a hand on her shoulder. "Hey, you don't need to be so nervous. Our Pokémon will protect us and I'll do the same. I'm a little scared myself, but we have to do this eventually, better to get it over with now than later. Right?" He finished with a reassuring smile.

Leaf looked down to him and nodded. "You're right. I just hope nothing bad happens."

"Well the way I see it, there are a few scenarios that can happen. One, they just run off and we never see them again. Two, they try to attack us, but it's six on two, not much of a chance there. And three, they actually warm up to us. I'm trying not to keep my hopes up, but I'm really hoping for option three. Pikachu is an electric type and can be very helpful, Vulpix the same for you since you don't have a fire type yet."

No use delaying the inevitable, so they made sure their own Pokémon would be ready in case things went haywire and officially released the newest editions (hopefully) of their team for the very first time.

As the light faded and their anatomies began to take form, the newly revealed Pikachu and Vulpix looked around before spotting two humans standing above them and got into defensive stances, threatening the duo to make a move and see what happens. Ash gave his first attempt at defusing the situation quickly and put his hands up in a surrender position.

"Hey, hey! Take it easy! No need for the electricity and fire."

That only made them more upset. "PIKA!" VULP!" If looks could kill, well, Ash would have a broken leg at most; considering the fact that the most angry of faces a Pikachu and Vulpix could make were not very menacing. Menacing of course, but not much so.

Leaf had her hands in the same position, "Look! We're not here to hurt you, we just wanted to get acquainted with you guys!"

They weren't having it as the two Pokémon with malicious intent looked ready to attack, but stopped short when they noticed they were outnumbered three to one by the six Pokémon now standing in front of their trainers preparing attacks of their own. Even Kaz looked serious and that was a new sight to everyone entirely.

Deciding that launching their attacks would probably result in more bad than good, Vulpix and Pikachu stood down, but were still ready for anything in case the two humans with their Pokémon attacked.

"Now that, that is settled, maybe we can start off on a fresh note," Leaf started. "My name is Leaf and this is my best friend, Ash." Ash waved hi. "Professor Oak decided to entrust us both with you two as your trainers and we hope that we can be great friends."

"Yeah!" Ash agreed with her. "Look, we don't what happened to you guys and my guess is, that you once had trainers you trusted, but somehow, they mistreated you. We've seen this kind of behavior before and we won't ask about it. But we do want you guys to give us a chance, let us show you that we aren't like other people, that we have nothing but good intentions for you both."

"Ash is right. You have options, if you want to run back into the wild, we'll let you and you'll never have to look back, but if you would just give us a chance, we can prove that we'll protect you with all we got and make you stronger. What do you say?"

The fire and electric type Pokémon were wary to say the least and the humans' words that they were speaking were too good to be true. However, after some thinking amongst themselves, albeit reluctantly, decided that they'll give their new trainers a chance.

That brightened their day even more than they thought possible and were elated that they were giving them the opportunity to prove themselves. Leaf was first to speak. "Oh thank you! You won't regret it!" Ash agreed with her.

Since it was about noon, the trainers decided it would be best if they got some training in. Firstly, they scanned their new Pokémon to see their information and what moves they have.

 **"Pikachu, the mouse Pokémon, and the evolved form of Pichu. It's nature is to store up electricity. Forests where nests of Pikachu live are dangerous, since the trees are so often struck by lightning. This Pikachu is male and has the moves Thunder Shock, Quick Attack, Agility and Tail Whip and has the ability, Lightning Rod."**

 **"Vulpix, the fox Pokémon. It manipulates balls of fire to catch its prey. If you raise one while it's young, it will grow close to you like a Puppy Pokémon. This Vulpix is female and has the moves Ember, Tail Whip, Quick Attack and Baby-Doll Eyes and has the ability, Flash Fire."**

Leaf was moderately surprise when she found out that her newest Pokémon has a fairy-type move considering fairy types were only recently discovered and did not know that Vulpix could learn this type of move; however, she was willing to utilize it to her advantage.

Since they were in a moderately open-sized area, the duo decided it was time to train. They figured it was best for Elekid and Shinx to learn some more moves since they did only have two moves, Quick Attack and Ice Punch, and Tackle and Ice Fang respectively. So they took a look at their X2 and found a new move for them to learn. Leaf decided to borrow Kaz for her Shinx to learn Bite, while Ash wanted to teach his Elekid, Low Kick. Relatively basic moves to learn all things considering, but they needed to start somewhere. They figured three days of training for these moves should do the trick.

Since Elekid was trying to learn Low Kick, he got the help from Sentret since she was trying to master Power-Up-Punch, another fighting type move and Ash knew the fighting style inside and out so he was training with them.

Cyndaquil and Gaige paired up in their training as well since they were the only ones left and were having a mock battle, testing the effectiveness of how their moves worked. When Gaige was on the defensive, Cyndaquil charged up an Ember attack to try and bust through the Protect shield around the grass type. While Gaige was on the offensive, she was practicing her aim with Razor Leaf since that move could use some work. Whenever her leaves hit Cyndaquil, he just shook them off since he was resistant and continued evading the razor-sharp leaves as much as he could. Every minute or so, they switched off and it proved to be effective for both sides.

Meanwhile, the Pikachu and Vulpix were off to the side, just watching the entire scene play itself out. They had never seen cooperation and support from any trainer and Pokémon like they were seeing right now. If a Pokémon got a move wrong or messed up in some way, their trainers didn't discourage them, but rather got them back on their feet and gave either advice or encouraging words to try it again, that it will be successful at some point; even if that point wasn't right now.

It was truly an inspiring sight for them to watch and began questioning if they were wrong about their trainers. The training methods weren't harsh, but they were effective and results were being shown, slowly but surely. They made a decision to slowly open up to their trainers, but still keep a close eye on them.

After about three hours of training and the two new Pokémon watching in awe, the duo decided that enough was enough and wished for their Pokémon to return into their Pokéballs for some rest. They offered the same to their newest members, but they declined for their own reasons. With Pikachu and Vulpix now the only Pokémon out, the four made their way further into route one, hoping to make it to Viridian by nightfall.

While walking, the fire and electric type were keeping an eye on their trainers. It just seemed odd to them that two people could connect so well with each other when all they ever knew was the opposite. They didn't force them to do anything and seemed to simply enjoy their company while walking. Ash and Leaf had tried to connect with them and they did to an extent, by just talking to them. The Pokémon didn't reply back, but were listening in on their stories that they were telling. They marveled at how courageous and humbled they seemed if their stories were anything to go by.

After another hour of walking, the four stumbled upon a river and figured a brake was in order, so they released their Pokémon once more to enjoy the fresh air. Upon taking a seat on the fresh green grass, they noticed another person in their presence that looked to be relatively their age. She had fiery-orange hair tied into a side ponytail, a cream-colored tank-top and jean-shorts with suspenders. She appears to be fishing, but doesn't seem to have much luck at the moment. She notices the group almost immediately after they release their Pokémon and waves at them.

Leaf smiled and waved back and said, "Hi there."

The orange-haired girl smiled and replied back, "Hey!" But right after she says that, she gets a bite and is struggling to keep the fishing pole in her hands. Leaf rushes over to try and help her, but isn't providing that much support. It's only when Ash arrives to help them out that the one pulling on the bait, finally flung out of the water and onto the grass. It seemed to be some kind of fish-type Pokémon that was mostly orange in color with scales. Along with some white whisker-like things on its face.

All three immediately knew what it was and Ash decided to scan it for his dex.

 **"Magikarp, the fish Pokémon. Its reckless leaps make it easy pickings for predators. On the bright side, many Pokémon enjoy longer life spans, thanks to Magikarp."**

Ash was a bit baffled at that one and decided something else had to have been better than that entry so he tried a different one.

 **"Magikarp, the fish Pokémon. Magikarp is a PATHETIC excuse for a Pokémon that is only capable of flopping and splashing. This behavior prompted scientists to undertake research into it."**

Leaf commented, "Well those a bit dark if anything. Goodness."

The mystery girl seemed to sigh, "Back in the water little guy." You didn't have to tell it twice, the Magikarp just flopped and splashed back into the river.

Ash explained his thought. "If I were you, I would have caught that little guy. Magikarp may be weak... and my Pokédex didn't help with that fact, but Gyarados are some of the best Pokémon out there in my opinion."

The not-named girl responded a bit irritated. "Well maybe I don't want to go through the hassle of training a Pokémon like that! Like that thing said, it's a pathetic excuse for a Pokémon."

Ash was taken aback with that comment. "Well that's a bit harsh."

She sighed again, "I know. It's just me and Gyarados don't have the best history. Plus I technically have one so..."

"You do? That's awesome! But wait, what do you mean by that?"

Leaf smacked him upside the head, "Ash, that's a personal manner, have some respect!" She then turned to the other person, "I'm sorry about my friend's behavior, his heart's in the right place, just sometimes his actions make you think otherwise. I'm Leaf by the way and that's Ash."

"I'm Misty. And don't worry about it, I could tell he's not a bad person."

Ash was still rubbing his head when he replied, "I try not to be."

The now-named Misty's eyes went down to the two Pokémon that were out. "Are these two yours? They're so cute!"

Each face had a different reaction. Pikachu seemed petrified at that statement and just crossed his arms while looking away, while Vulpix, despite being orange and red, one could tell a small blush appeared on her face from embarrassment.

Misty and Leaf giggled at their actions, but continued to have some small talk while Ash just kinda fell out of the loop with it all. The only thing he could do was look down at the 'cute' creatures below him and shrug. Pikachu and Vulpix just did the same thing and waited for something to happen.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on the one you're asking, a purple snake-like Pokémon came crawling from out of one of the bushes and seemed to be looking for some berries to eat. Since Ash wasn't involved in the conversation the girls were having, he noticed this almost immediately and knew exactly what it was. He pointed his X2 at it.

 **"Ekans, the snake Pokémon. It sneaks through grass without making a sound and strikes unsuspecting prey from behind."**

Now that Ash thought about it, he didn't hear this Pokémon at all, but his keen-eye made him see it almost instantly. What was weird to Ash was that he remembered that Ekans were more carnivorous than anything so the fact that this little guy was eating berries was a bit odd.

Nevertheless, he was interested in catching an Ekans and now was an opportune time to do so. With that in mind, it was time for battle. "Cyndaquil, I choose you!" He yelled out as he threw the Pokéball that held his first ever capture.

The fire-mouse Pokémon was now on the field as the girls turned and noticed the two Pokémon were now staring each other down. Ash calls out, "Alright Cyndaquil, this will be our very first wild Pokémon battle together and our plan is to capture that Ekans." He points to the Ekans about ten feet away. "You can do it buddy! I believe in you."

"Cynda!" It replied in response and got into battle position. The wild Ekans didn't take too kindly to one interrupting its lunch so it shot out a poison-sting attack.

"Now Cyndaquil, use Ember to counter!" Cyndaquil listened with complete obedience and shot out an ember attack to neutralize the poison-type move making its way to him. "Great job! Now give it a Tackle attack!"

The fire-mouse was quick on his feet and made its way over to hopefully land a hit, however, Ekans was an agile Pokémon and almost like a rubber band, moved its body to the right with evasion and shot another poison sting attack. This time, the poisonous needles managed to strike Ash's Pokémon as it was now a lot closer and did some damage.

Ash was hoping that attack didn't poison him, but luckily it didn't and only took minor damage. "Careful there Cyndaquil! Use Flame Wheel while you're still in range!"

Cyndaquil began charging its body up with heat and within a short moment was spinning its way over to the purple snake, this time doing damage with a direct impact. As luck seemed to be on his side, the burning side-effect seemed to take affect on the Ekans and slowly drained his health.

Though as luck seemed to be on the wild Pokémon's side as well, it seemed to shed some skin off and the burning effect looked to be vacant on the Pokémon now. Ash took note. "So it had Shed Skin, not a bad ability to have. Cyndaquil use Ember!"

"Cynda! QUIL!" Cyndaquil shouted out as dozens of tiny embers made its way to the snake. Ekans saw this coming and leaped into the air with grace as the embers flew right under it and hit the tree.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, again, depending on who you're asking, something was blocking the way from the embers hitting the tree. It was a bicycle, more importantly, the bicycle belonged to none other than...

"AHHHH! MY BIKE! YOU RUINED MY BIKE!" Yep, you guessed it.

Misty's scream was so loud that it startled both Ash and Ekans. Ash fell on his bottom and Ekans decided it was time to high-tail it out of there and scurried off in a hurry. From fear of the orange-haired girl's tantrum or the battle, only _it_ knew.

When Ash finally turned, he practically was staring at death in the face. Misty looked ready to murder something and that something was Ash. Realizing what he had just done and what was about to happen if he had just sat there, he kipped-up and began dodging punches coming from the fiery red-head. He internally thanked the couple years of self-defense training he received from the fighting-type Pokémon back at Oak's ranch.

He began trying to apologize, "Hey, Misty. I'm sorry! It was an accident! I swear!"

Misty just was not having it and began trying to attack the one who crisped-up her bike. "Stop dodging and take this fist already!"

Leaf was trying to piece together in her head on how to stop the situation. She knew Ash would not let Misty get a hit on him unless he wanted to, he was too quick for that, but at the same time, wanted to defuse the situation. She wish she had Ash's brain in that moment.

She gave up and just trapped Misty in a full-nelson to calm her down. "Look Misty, I'm not letting you go until you calm down! So stop flailing and give Ash a break! It was an accident and he didn't mean to destroy your bike!"

When Misty got trapped by Leaf, she was astonished, to say the least. She hadn't figured the young lady to be knowledgeable in self-defense. As she listened to her words (as that was all she could do since Leaf had a pretty tight grip on her arms), she realized she wasn't getting let go until she calmed down for one, and two, maybe she overreacted just a bit.

She was justified in that respect for being angry, but trying to beat the living daylights out of the one who burnt your bike was a bit much. So, she stopped flailing and calmed down, but still gave Ash a death glare, who just stood there awkwardly.

When Leaf felt like Misty wouldn't murder her best friend anymore, she slowly let go of her hold, but was still wary and spoke up, "Now, please, can we discuss this civilly without trying to tear each other's heads off."

Ash quickly nodded. Misty rolled her eyes at the boy's antic and decided to speak up for the first time after calming down. "Okay, okay. Maybe I overreacted when **HE** and **THAT** ," emphasis on the word He and That, "decided to shoot FIRE at my bike!"

Cyndaquil looked hurt at that remark and Ash noticed.

"HEY!" He yelled out, which made a surprised look on the faces of the girls. "You can insult me all you want, but you will NOT, and I mean, you WILL NOT undermine my Pokémon for simply following a battle command! I don't care who you are!" His tone was getting more aggressive by the word.

Tornado sirens were going off in Leaf's head and she knew exactly where this was heading and she knew she had to do something fast.

Misty was actually starting to get nervous as she wasn't used to this kind of behavior from anyone. Usually when she tried to intimidate someone, whether in battle or with words, it worked in her favor. Yet here she was, almost in utter defeat to Ash.

"If you want to get angry with me, that's one thing, but say ANYTHING about my Pokémon, or Leaf for that matter, I will not hesitate to leave you in a **nightmare!** "

Leaf seeing Misty's distress, ran over to Ash to calm HIM down now. All she had to do was put her hands on his shoulders. It always worked and she wasn't afraid to step in when needed. "Ash! Please, you need to calm down right now! She didn't mean what she said so please settle down!"

Ash, feeling Leaf's touch and hearing her words, settled down enough to take some deep breaths and get his anger situated. Leaf was thankful she had done it again, it always worked.

Ash collected his thoughts and spoke up. "I'm sorry. That was uncool of me. It's just when someone attacks the ones close to me, I get pretty protective of them. They're all I got, you know?"

Misty, consistently blinking and trying to figure out what just happened, replied. "Umm. N-No, I'm the one that needs to be apologizing. Tha-That was out of line and I k-know that your Cyndaquil was j-just following y-your words." She almost completely forgot what happened to her bike and was just trying to make amends.

Hearing the words from the young man in front of her, sparked a feeling she had only felt once. Fear. She hadn't been talked down to like that in years and such few words as well. And there he was, saying he was sorry for it, when it was her fault anyway.

Figuring the bike was unimportant, she said. "H-how about we just start over? P-please?"

Ash nodded and stuck his hand out. Misty, seeing this action, gave him a handshake. A new beginning. "Hi, I'm Ash Ketchum, future Pokémon master."

"The name's Misty. Future Water Pokémon Master."

She turned to the small fire-Pokémon, "And I'm sorry to you as well. Calling you a 'That' was totally disrespectful. I was blinded by my rage after seeing my bike destroyed, that I didn't take your feelings into account. Can you forgive me?"

The fire-mouse Pokémon was a forgiving one. That was a trait that Ash had taught him, so he walked up the fiery red-head and nuzzled its head into her hand.

Ash smiled at the sight. It was quite an eventful couple of minutes, but he was glad everything was settled and she saw the error that she made and owned up to it. Not many people would have.

Leaf spoke up, "Now that, that's settled, we were making our way to Viridian City. Misty, would you like to join us?"

She was surprised to hear the question, but decided it could be fun. "Sure, why not? Can give us all a chance to connect more." She finished with a smile.

"What about your bike?" Ash asked awkwardly.

"Oh...yeah. Hmm." As her bike was burnt to a crisp, she didn't have a means to travel around quickly anymore and that thing was pretty much at the point of no return.

"I could uhh, maybe carry it to Viridian City. There's a bike shop there that might be able to fix it. I'll pay for the damages of course, but no promises."

Misty wasn't one to refuse charity, especially if he'd be paying to fix her bike so she agreed. Luckily, Viridian City was only about a four-hour walking distance from where they were, so it didn't take too long. Route one was one of the shortest routes in Kanto.

It took a little longer than that though since Ash did have to carry Misty's bike. He wasn't weak by any stretch of the imagination, but carrying a bike for hours on end wasn't easy. However, it was the least he could do since he did cause this to happen and her anger earlier was justified. He just wished she didn't blame Cyndaquil since he was worried it would bring him down. It didn't today, but who's to say what his fire type was feeling about the situation.

After delivering the bike off at the repair shop, with zero guarantee that it could be salvaged. The group made their way to the Pokémon center to get a good night's rest.

Everyone had different thoughts that night. Leaf was glad she could defuse the situation that went between Ash and Misty. She knew her best friend inside and out and had a feeling that if she hadn't stepped in, things could have ended a lot worse. No matter what happened to him, Ash was never one to take things personally. You could throw a thousand harsh words his way and it wouldn't bother him. That's just how he is. Now, say two words about anyone that he loves, suddenly, you're on the end of a verbal beat down and he will hunt you down like a Braviary. Leaf shuddered at the thought of being on the receiving end.

Ash's emotions were mixed all around. Sadness, guilt, regret, frustration, but not anger towards anyone. He kept thinking about the confrontation that happened earlier. He wasn't proud of it, he never is, but something inside him momentarily snaps, each and every time someone wants to, in anyway, hurt the ones he loves. Ever since he was little, he always had these episodes of rage if anyone (namely Gary) would invade his business. Maybe that's why he didn't have any human friends other than Leaf.

Misty was shaken-up still, but tried not to show it on the walk to the center, though she had a feeling Leaf had noticed. She had been trying to work on her anger issues, but when she saw her bike burnt to a crisp, she lost all progress in that moment. For Arceus' sake, this stranger had come almost out of nowhere and totaled her bike. She seemed to have Ash in her grasp until she had mentioned Cyndaquil. That was the tipping point and almost right then and there, she was at Ash's mercy. The aggression in his tone was VERY evident and it took his best friend to calm him down. She wondered what would have happened if she wasn't there. Actually, scratch that, she **DIDN'T** want to know.

 _ **June 6th, 2006**_

After waking up, the gang met up to have a bite at the center's morning buffet they served to trainers and their Pokémon. Of course, Ash got a mountain's worth of food. Misty wondered where he store it all since he was in pretty good shape from what she could see.

The girls were sitting on one side of the booth while Ash was on the other. And since Ash's back was to the wall, Leaf noticed a TV above his head and just casually watched whatever was on. Ash could hear it and figured it was some sort of documentary about something and just ignored it.

As the show went to commercial, Leaf saw something that brought a smile to her face and screamed out in glee. With that, she had managed to get dirty looks from people behind her but paid no attention and continued listening in. Ash was wondering what she was looking at so he turned and saw what looked to be a young lady, that didn't look too much older than him, performing and singing on stage in front of a relatively large crowd.

Ash figured she was a fan and asked. "Who's that?"

"Who's that?!" Leaf repeated. "WHO'S THAT?! Why that's the one and only Sharron Katchal! Greatest music-performer in the modern era! And she's only 12 years old!"

Misty piped in. "I love Sharron Katchal! Her music speaks volumes and will pave the way for future young kids who's dream is to perform on stage!"

Ash was surprised at their words and turned once more to get a good look at what they were watching. Ash noticed that this Sharron girl was quite a sight as she looked to be having the time of her life on that stage.

Sharron Katchal had long black hair that seemed to fade to a dark burgundy color that was tied into a ponytail, along with hazel-colored eyes. Her attire consisted crystal white Capri-Jeans with midnight blue blouse and a short black jacket that reached down to about mid-stomach. It looked as though she was in everyday clothing, yet at the same time, she was having the time of her life on stage."

"One day, I hope I can meet her." Leaf stated. "She's such an inspiration to young girls everywhere and I'd like to do the same, with whatever I do."

Ash seemed to agree. "I get what you mean. If she can make it big at that age like you two are saying, it makes me wonder where I'll be in two years." Ash's gaze started to wander as he began to wonder what was in store for him. It only lasted for a couple seconds when he noticed a poster on the walls to the left of him. It looked to be an advertisement of some kind for a tournament.

Curious, he excused himself and went over to see what this was all about. He read out loud. "Pokémon World Tournament. The newest innovation to the Pokémon world involving high-impact battling and thrilling suspense. Huh!"

Ash was getting excited as he continued reading the smaller text at the bottom. "Qualifying rounds begin at the 7th of every month with free viewing online. Winners of said qualifying rounds move on to the main Pay-Per-View card, which airs on the last Sunday of every month. Join up today."

"I'm surprised you haven't heard of this yet. You seem like the battle type Ash." Ash jumped a little when he heard Misty's voice.

He responded. "Is this new? Because, usually I would hear something like this."

"Yeah, I'm curious myself." Leaf walked up.

Misty nodded. "Relatively. It's only been around for about four to five months or so. It's essentially an elite battle tournament that scours around Kanto, looking for its top-tier trainers. It has a ladder type ranking system. New trainers who qualify for PWT's Pay-Per-View get put on the under-card and try to build up wins on the official stage. These matches are just 1-on-1 Pokémon battles. If you rack up a certain number of wins, or the fans enjoy you enough, you get bumped up to the mid card, these are 2-on-2 matches and are a bit more intense.

Again, if you have momentum on your side, you'll be brought up to the main card, which are 4-on-4 matches and in my opinion are some of the best battles of the night. Ultimately though, your goals is to get the main event and stay there, because the one who wins the main event gets bragging rights and a championship title to show that they own the entire roster. These are 6-on-6 matches and there is only one of these per night. Generally, top-tier trainers are here and takes a while to get there. Apparently, they haven't even crowned their champion yet as they're still finding who is the most elite of the elite, but it's all gonna change at this month's Pay-Per-View! I personally can't wait!"

Ash and Leaf were soaking up all this information and anticipation was building higher and higher by the word. Especially for Ash, an entire tournament that all culminated at one event to find the best of the best was like a dream come true for them.

"That's awesome! I wanna see this for myself! Where is the next Pay-Per-View?" Ash asked.

"It's actually in Cerulean City. The 26th of the month. So just under three weeks away. It takes place in a good-sized arena and each major city in Kanto has one as I'm sure you know."

Leaf started checking her X2. "Hmm, it says here that there are still plenty of tickets on sale and for pretty cheap too. I can get us all some if you like." By this time, they say down back at their table.

Misty waved it off, "That's alright, I actually already have extra tickets to the event since my sisters aren't even interested in battling." She finished that on a bitter note.

Leaf took note and asked. "If your sisters aren't interested in battling, why would you have extra tickets?"

This made Misty fidget a bit. "Uhh, I-I just thought they might want to go with me for once, but refused upright. So I have three extra tickets anyway."

Ash raised an eyebrow. "Three sisters? Must be rough." He said offhandedly.

"You have no idea." She said as she pinched the bridge of her nose. "I thought having siblings would make life a bit easier, but no, sadly not."

Ash continued. "I wouldn't know."

"Neither would I."

Misty's eyebrows rose at that one. "You guys have no siblings?"

Leaf shook her head. "Nope, no siblings."

"Huh. I just figured..." She didn't know how to continue.

"Nah." Ash stated. "Would've liked a sibling though. Older or younger, brother or sister, wouldn't matter. Heh, sometimes I dream about a long lost sibling that is somewhere out there in the world and they don't even know I'm his or her brother."

Misty raised an eyebrow and said. "You're weird. Trust me, siblings aren't all that."

"Actually, I've done it as well." Leaf spoke up. "While not by blood, Ash here is practically family to me and he's good enough. I've known him my entire life, literally." She sent a warm smile his way with which he reciprocated.

Misty was envious. She had never had anyone even remotely this close to her as these two were to each other. It was inspiring in a way, every person she had tried to build a bridge with ended up burning it down or left halfway through, even her sisters. Ash and Leaf though seemed very comfortable around each other, like nothing they did could hurt the other enough to push them away. She wished she had that with someone. Yep, envious alright.

The rest of the morning was pretty uneventful, as they just discussed some things to get to know each other and what they're end goals are. Misty decided to swallow her pride and just disclose to them that she was the gym leader in Cerulean city which mildly surprised them. They wondered why she was out of her duties and explained that all of her sisters were supposed to be gym leaders as well, but that _she_ was the one subjected to doing all the work. Misty also explained that she was tired of it and until they promised to do their own duties as gym leaders as well, that she wouldn't return.

The duo understood what she was going through and supported her decision.

For some reason though, Leaf felt that something should have happened in the center, she didn't know exactly what, just had this weird gut instinct that an event should have taken place, but nothing had happened. She shrugged it off and figured the adventure jitters were starting to sprout ideas in her mind that everywhere they went would be an adventure in and of itself. Even including peaceful, quiet mornings in Pokémon centers.

Going into Viridian City, Ash had already figured that the gym leader was probably not there, as he never was there to begin with (hence why this gym had the least amount of badges given), however, he tried his luck in hoping for a gym battle.

As expected, the sign on the front door said that the gym was closed until further notice. Both the aspiring trainers were disappointed, but not surprised, they had heard that this gym leader only worked like 50 days out of the year, if that.

While they were making their way onto the next route, Ash pulled Misty back a bit and silently gave a message for Leaf to continue walking ahead of them. Leaf understood almost instantly and nodded.

"Hey Misty." Ash started. "I uhh... didn't feel like I properly apologized for yesterday. I said I was sorry, but thinking back to it, it didn't feel as genuine as I could have made it."

Misty, with wide-eyes, waved him off. "No, no, no, it's because of my childish actions that got you angry. You have nothing to apologize for, I deserved every bit of that."

"I don't think so. I basically told you I would put you out cold and you would have nightmares because of it, that was way out of line."

"But I still hurt your Cyndaquil's feelings. Over what? A bike? My sisters got me that for my 11th birthday and the brakes were already squeaking, that thing was a ticking time bomb. It was a blessing in disguise and I took my unnecessary anger out on you."

"That still doesn't justify my actions and for that, I'm sorry. And I'm also sorry I burnt your bike."

Misty gave a short laugh, "Don't worry about that thing. As you know, I'm a gym leader, if I really needed another one, the league would hand one over."

"I know but..."

"Shush. I'm sorry too. Now, let's drop that and move on." She would've happily walked on ahead if not for a sign that she absolutely dreaded to read.

 _ **"Viridian Forest. Home of the Wild Bug Pokémon."**_

All the color had drained from her face as Ash and Leaf (who slowed down for the two of them to catch up), shared a look of confusion and wonder.

Curious, Leaf asked. "You alright Misty?"

"B-b-bu-bu-bug-bug. Not bug, anything b-but b-bug." She was babbling like an idiot.

"Do you not like bugs?" Leaf asked.

Misty couldn't exactly trust her words at that very moment, so she just shook her head vigorously. In her opinion, bugs were on the equivalent of fire. Something she never wanted to touch, only difference here though is that she can't put out this type of fire with her water types as easily.

She expected her new friends to laugh at her, however, they seemed to understand completely as Leaf brought up. "I can see why you're not a fan of them. Some are pretty creepy."

Ash just shrugged. "Accelgor is pretty cool though."

Misty shook her head. "Even Accelgor! All of them!"

"Even Surskit?" Leaf questioned.

The red-head froze at that one. She never really thought about that one. Surskit was a bug type indeed, but they were also a water type. She'd have to think about it more. "I abstain from that for now."

"Well. We're gonna have to get through this forest to get to Pewter City to get our first badge. And I want to get to Cerulean after to watch some PWT!" Ash vocalized his exhilaration for the event. "Come on!" He yelled out as he ran into the forest.

Leaf went wide-eyed at her best friend's actions, "Ash! Wait for us! Come on Misty, guess we're gonna have to deal with this forest."

The Cerulean gym leader was dreading this, but figured she had no choice if she didn't want to get left behind. So she walked beside Leaf into the bug-infested timberland.

Meanwhile with Ash, he didn't even last two minutes before he heard, "I challenge you to a battle!"

Curious, he looked around and saw a kid that looked to be his age with a net in his hand. He looked to be a regular ol' bug catcher, but Ash was never one to turn down a challenge and spoke out, "Challenge accepted!"

"Good! You're going down you noob!" The young bug catcher exclaimed as he brought out a Kakuna.

Ash raised an eyebrow at that comment, but shrugged it off and analyzed this Kakuna. It actually seemed decently trained as the yellow color was very vibrant in appearance and seemed ready to evolve any day now. Maybe this kid would provide a challenge ahead of the Pewter gym.

By now, the girls had caught up to him as saw what was going on and decided to watch on. Though, seeing the Kakuna, Misty wanted to run and hide under a rock until the battle was over, but knew she couldn't. Leaf volunteered to be a referee for this battle.

"This will be a one-on-one battle between Ash Ketchum from Pallet Town and uhhh, what's your name?" She asked the bug catcher. He replied with "Joey from Viridian City!" By this time, Ash had released his Cyndaquil onto the field.

"Right. And Joey from Viridian City! There will be no substitutions! BATTLE BEGIN!"

* * *

 _ **VS. BATTLE**_

 **ASH KETCHUM VS. JOEY**

 **CYNDAQUIL VS KAKUNA**

"Alright Kakuna! USE HARDEN NOW!" Joey shouted out to start the battle. A glass-like shielding covered Kakuna for a couple seconds before fading, raising Kakuna's defense.

"It's a bit stronger now Cyndaquil. Let's test how tough it really is! Use your Tackle Attack!" Ash ordered. Without hesitation Cyndquil took off with amazing speed and hit the yellow bug-type with direct impact. The opposing Kakuna seemed somewhat fazed, but overall looked fine.

Joey noted the speed. "Wow, that Cyndaquil is almost fast as lightning! Okay then, use your newest move I just taught you Kakuna!"

Kakuna nodded and started spewing webs that looked to be infused with electricity onto Cyndaquil. The little fire-mouse appeared to have taken some damage with the side effect of lowering its speed.

Ash was moderately surprised. "It knows electroweb? Wow. This'll be a bit more difficult than I thought. Cyndaquil, use Ember now!"

The mouse nodded and began spewing out embers with the heat of a raging wildfire towards the bug-type.

Joey looked like he was gonna panic a bit. "Ah! Kakuna, try to dodge those!" Kakuna lept from side-to-side, dodging as many embers as it could, but ultimately taking massive damage from the few it did take. Harden only raised its defense, not its special-defense and that was used to Ash's advantage.

"Great job Cyndquil!" Ash praised. "Use ember once more, then use Flame Wheel to bring this battle to its end!" Cyndaquil began spewing out what looked like hundreds more tiny embers. It also began slowly started moving closer, almost pinning down the helpless bug type.

Joey didn't know what to do and after the embers stopped, noticed the orange glow around Cyndaquil and just braced for the impact. He knew all attempts to get his bug-type out of the way was futile, Kakuna were very slow in speed. He eventually saw the fire-type make impact and saw his Kakuna with swirls in its eyes. He sighed.

Leaf spoke out. "Kakuna is unable to battle. Cyndaquil wins! And the victory goes to Ash!" She finished with raising her right arm towards Ash.

"Alright! We won our first official battle Cyndaquil! Awesome job!" He praised his first Pokémon.

"Cynda! Quil!" It chirped back, happy to have won the battle and please his trainer.

From his standpoint, Ash could see that Joey wasn't happy with the result of this battle. He returned his Pokémon and yelled towards Ash. "You won today, but you won't win next time!" Without another word, he ran back towards the entrance of Viridian City.

Leaf walked towards Ash and mentioned, "Well that was kind of rude, don't ya think?"

Misty, coming out from behind a rock she was hiding behind, walked up and agreed, "Majorly. I get he wanted to win, but just running off like that after a battle is totally uncalled for."

It didn't seem to bother Ash. "Oh well, the important thing is that we won our first trainer battle! And that's always something to be excited about."

 _ **June 8th, 2006**_

Other than Joey, they haven't been able to find any other trainers thus far which was surprising since Viridian Forest is a two-day walk from Viridian to Pewter. Over the last couple of days, the trio of kids continued training their Pokémon to get their moves perfected and overall progression towards anything that needed to be worked on.

Pikachu and Vulpix were still segregating themselves from the training group and just continued watching on as Ash, Leaf and now Misty assisted their Pokémon to get them to be stronger. When it came time to return to their Pokéballs, those two were the first to jump back in. Their trainers' wondered why this was as they wanted to connect with them more. No answers, but they were glad they weren't attempting to attack them anymore, so _some_ progress was made, albeit not much.

Elekid finally got the hang of Low Kick today and Ash was thrilled for it, another good attack to have in his arsenal. Shinx was still having trouble connecting with the dark energy required to learn Bite. Despite being childish in nature, Kaz was actually very helpful in teaching Shinx the move and was patient with him. Ash couldn't be prouder.

It was revealed that Misty had a Staryu, a Starmie and a Shellder. Ash wondered where Misty's Gyarados was, but figured it was probably at the Cerulean gym. Speaking of Misty, since they were still in Viridian Forest, she had a difficult time sleeping, with the knowledge that dozens, possibly hundreds of bug-type Pokémon were around.

The duo never really found anything noteworthy to catch, as Viridian Forest just occupied the average bug Pokémon of Kanto such as Weedle, Caterpie, the occasional Beedrill, etc. And while they could train up these Pokémon to be beasts in their own right, they didn't want to fully occupy every slot just yet, as they already had four Pokémon each. Misty was adamant about getting as far away from this forest as fast as humanly possible, so she didn't even attempt to catch anything.

As they went on, they had finally reached Pewter City! Home of the Rock.

* * *

 **It** **'s been 12 months so what's up?**

 **In all seriousness though, the last 12 months have been a life changer for me, I'll give it that. Plus, I hit a massive case of writer's block for this story, but I think I have some ideas so we're gonna be continuing Ash and Leaf's adventures from now on and I promise, I won't take 12 months this time. I couldn't really find a good end-point for this chapter, that's why it ended kind of awkward, I'll admit that, but chapter 5 will be immediately uploaded after this one, we're talking like just a day in between! Also, I think chapter 5 is one of my better chapters, I'd rank it just under chapter 1 in terms of how I like them so be on the lookout for that.**

 **Now discussing this chapter, I don't know how I feel about it, it's still in that phase where we're not quite into the action yet, but actually introducing some character development for each of them is always a good thing. I kind of feel like I could have done better with a couple of the scenes, but that's all I could come up with without delaying it any longer. Writer's block, it's fun. Not really.**

 **Also, let me know in the reviews if I need improvement on anything, I understand the fight between Ash and Misty was a little out of character even for them, but I want to take this story in a different direction from the normal anime and have different scenes and personality traits that aren't explored too often in these types of stories. Hence no goofy Team Rocket...yet...I've said too much!**

 **Nothing is filler. :)**

 **-MidnightJD**


	5. Chapter V: The Enigmatic Stone in Pewter

**Before you read this chapter, just wanted to give you guys a heads up that I uploaded two chapters at the same time and just on the off chance you skipped to this chapter, that you should go back and read chapter 4. That's just in case you accidentally skipped a chapter, now you know. Anyway, enjoy the many words below!**

 **Chapter V: The Enigmatic Stone in Pewter**

 _ **June 10th, 2006**_

It was right before sundown when our heroes arrived in Pewter City, meaning that the gym was most likely closed and that the local Pokémon center was taking customers. They figured they'd get a little more prepared for the gym and challenge it in a few days time, to get everyone ready for the battle ahead.

As they took in the site at the hill overlooking the town, they suddenly heard a low and gruffly voice, "Pewter City is gray, the color of stone. This town has always been famous for its stone."

Ash looked down from where he was sitting to see a man who looked to be in his early 40's with a big-spiky-beard that had no signs of going gray anytime soon. Along with some casual clothes and a read beanie that was covering his eyes. Ash spoke aloud, "Huh? What the...? Who is this guy?" He asked looking over at the girls who just shrugged as they had zero clue who he was.

"My name is Flint. And you just so happen to be sitting on some of my merchandise young man."

Realizing that he had indeed been sitting on a rock, Ash quickly stood off of the rock and apologized for it. Which then he questioned, "You sell rocks here?"

"Indeed. They're Pewter City souvenirs. Want to buy some?"

Leaf raised an eyebrow, "You're asking us if we want to buy rocks?"

Flint looked up a bit, but his eyes were still shaded by the red beanie he was wearing. "I'm a merchant. It's what I do. Now, are you going to buy something or what?" His patience looked to be running thin a bit, but his quiet tone of voice never faltered.

The girls were about to decline when Ash spoke up. "Actually, I think I will." He walked towards one of the shelves set up and looked on in wonder at one rock in particular.

Misty was a bit baffled at that. "Ash! You can't be serious! It's just a rock you're looking at, you could probably find something very similar to one like that about 100 yards that way." She pointed back into the forest.

Ash analyzed his particular rock with an intense eye, something inside of him just told him that _This_ rock in particular was different from the rest. Didn't look all too different, apart from the fact that this one looked to be more of a rock that came from a mountain range rather than your common everyday forest that was around Kanto. It had a brownish tint to it with little carvings edged into it that formed a circle with an oval shape sticking out of the middle. Ash felt like he had seen this rock somewhere before, but couldn't exactly put his finger on it.

Flint decided to question the young man. "Why does this rock in particular intrigue you young man?"

Ash didn't even know, "I'm not entirely sure, call it a gut instinct, but something just told me the moment I saw this rock that I should buy it."

Flint knew _exactly_ what this rock was, but didn't want to disclose it to Ash yet, "Hmm. I'll tell you one thing, this isn't any normal rock. And it might surprise you when you find out what it is. If you're willing to take it off my hands, I'd like you to go to the Pewter Museum of Science. They'll tell you exactly what it is, tell them Flint sent you."

Ash was confused, but went along with it anyway, "Uhh, sure. Why not?" He shrugged. "How much?"

"Just for you, no charge." Ash almost tripped over when he heard that, to his knowledge, it was only a rock, but apparently the people at the museum know what it is.

"But you say it's special," Ash pleaded, "The least I could do is give you some sort of payment."

"Yeah, and I could have, but trust me when I say that there's something about you young man. You and your friends over here." He nodded towards the girls. "It's not something I can put into words, just that I know you'll take good care of this rock."

"Umm." Ash wasn't sure what to say. "Thanks a lot. I guess. One more thing, can you give us some direction as to where the Pokémon center is?"

Flint looked down to see their Pokémon, which consisted of Elekid and Shinx right now and they looked like they could use a breather from all the walking they've been doing. "Your Pokémon look worn out. Follow me, the center is just down the road." He exclaimed as he stood up and gestured for them to follow. They all just shrugged once again and followed the man, the rock now in Ash's possession.

 _ **June 11th, 2006**_

That next morning, the trio were sitting around a table eating some breakfast and discussing their plan for the day.

Misty spoke up first, "I was thinking we'd be heading to the Pewter Museum of Science before we visit the gym, I'm really curious as to what that rock could possibly be."

Leaf chimed in. "It seems our mystery will be solved there. I agree."

Ash nods and continues eating his bacon. Misty questioned, "So, have you done your homework on the gym leader?

"I actually did as odd as that sounds." Ash began. "The gym leader is a man called Brock, uses Rock types if the stones everywhere in town weren't already obvious enough. He uses a different amount of Pokémon depending on the amount of gym badges a trainer has."

Leaf smirked as she said. "As least you were smart about it and didn't run in there with no preparation whatsoever."

Misty giggled a bit as Ash had a look of mortification on his face. "For your information missy, I DO happen to plan ahead of time on things."

Leaf snorted at that, "Yeah right. Like that one time you tried to make friends with some Weedle, then I find you tied up in a cocoon. I had to unwrap you for THREE hours!"

Their orange-haired friend couldn't hold it in anymore and just busted out laughing. She could only imagine how that even transpired.

"I don't want to talk about that, you swore you'd never bring it up again!" Ash ranted.

Leaf raised an eyebrow at that, "And Gary is a drama queen. Sheesh, I'm starting to think maybe that title belongs to you Ash." She said in a humored manner.

Ash had a look of horror on his face, "You wouldn't!"

"Maybe I would, maybe I wouldn't. Never know."

"Wait, wait, wait." Misty said as she finally calmed herself down enough to ask, "Ash got tied up into a cocoon by some Weedle?! That's embarrassing! Haha!"

Ash just put his head down in shame. He was a young, curious boy back then. He was just trying to make new friends, ultimately though, it just ended in utter humiliation, and a long shower to stop feeling sticky.

"It's good going in prepared." Misty stated as she finally calmed down enough. "I've had a fair share of trainers come in without any preparation and I sent them packing easily. Gym leaders aren't to be taken lightly, as they're meant to provide a challenge greater than most common trainers would."

Ash listened in on her advice about gym leaders. He knew they were some of the best Kanto had to offer, some more difficult than others, but he thrived on the challenge. "Well, I'm going in Tuesday as I'm ecstatic to get my first badge!"

Leaf questioned, "So who are you going to use?"

"I've thought about it," Ash said. "And I'm definitely going with Elekid as he's going to be a force to be reckoned with. I'm not sure who else though and none of my other Pokémon really have an edge over rock types. Especially Cyndaquil, unfortunately."

Misty gave her advice, "Elekid is a good choice as he knows an ice and fighting move and you could possibly solo the gym with him alone, but I would pick another just in case."

Leaf chimed in, "Whomever you choose, I think they'll do well."

Ash got encouraged by Leaf's words. "Thanks Leaf! So have you decided on a goal yet? I know you've been thinking about it a lot."

"No." Leaf shook her head. "It's just difficult, I love battling, but gyms are your thing, I wouldn't want to take that away from you."

The red-head suggested. "What about PWT? They're always looking for new trainers to join their ranks and you said you like battling. Maybe give that a shot, you never know until you try."

Leaf thought about it and it did make sense. She loved battling almost as much as Ash does, but something inside of her just told her that being a Pokémon master wouldn't be her long-term goal. Gym battles were fun in their own right, but she felt something else was out there for her. Maybe it _Was_ PWT.

So they continued talking about various subjects such as type advantages, possible future captures, etc. before heading out to find the Pewter Museum of Science. Leaf brought up a map of the city on her X2 and began leading the way to the museum.

The duo decided to bring out their first Pokémon (Cyndaquil and Sentret) today to walk along with them, as they liked having their Pokémon in the fresh air. Misty had seen them use their X2 devices quite a bit and questioned what they were. Leaf explained that their X2 were essentially computers on their wrist, and that they could do just about anything, like having a GPS, a video call system, as well as that being their Pokédex. Misty was fascinated and wondered if she could get one. Ash told her it was still in its development stages, but might have an idea as to where he could get her one.

Eventually, after about 15 minutes of walking, they had finally arrived to the Museum and decided to walk in.

They were greeted by a woman who was behind a desk by the door. "Good morning. Welcome to the Pewter Museum of Science. My name is Amy, may I be of any assistance to you today?" She seemed like your average Kanto woman, about 5'6" in height, brunette hair with forest-green eyes, wearing a gray Museum uniform.

The group turned and Ash greeted her. "Hi there, my name is Ash. I was hoping you could help us out in telling us what exactly this is." He finished as he brought out the rock he received from Flint the previous day.

Amy eyed it for a second before stating, "Our head scientist, Jack will be able to tell you more about it. He's currently at the back of the museum so I'll call him up front for you. If you want, we have a lounge area right over there for you to wait." She explains as she points to a really nice lounge area. The seats look to be made of fine black leather, the same as the couple couches that were scattered around it as well.

She paged for the scientist and informed him to come to the lounge area. About a minute later, a more elderly looking man was walking up to the trio who were patiently waiting. He looked to be in his late 50's, early 60's, was about 5'11" tall and was wearing a casual scientist lab-coat that didn't seem to be anything too fancy. The most noticeable thing the kids saw when they looked at him was the odd limp he seemed to be walking on. He seems to favor his right leg a bit and Leaf took notice of the knee brace supporting this man. She wondered what had happened, but wasn't about to ask him in respect of his privacy.

When he took notice of the kids, he limped his way over and waved at them and spoke, "Ah! You must be the kids Amy was talking about. Allow me to introduce myself. I am the head scientist at this museum, but you may call me Jack." They took notice of how deep his voice was, it was very different from the light voice and higher-pitched voice that Professor Oak had.

Ash spoke up first, "Hi Jack! My name is Ash Ketchum from Pallet Town, and these are my friends, Leaf and Misty." They both waved at the elderly-man.

"Pallet Town." Jack started. "A quaint little place, home to the world-renown Professor Oak yes?"

Leaf nodded. "That's correct. He taught us everything we know about Pokémon. Though, not so much about rocks. We came here today hoping to get some answers."

"I was told you have something you'd like to show me. Perhaps I could be of assistance to you." Jack gestured for them to bring out their item.

Ash slung his backpack over the chair he was sitting on and began digging through it before bringing out the infamous rock that has remained a mystery up until this point. He handed the rock over to the scientist as he began his examination.

"Interesting item you have young man." He said. "Tell me, where exactly did you get this artifact?"

Ash raised an eyebrow at the word 'artifact' but continued, "Some guy outside of town gave this to me. He told us to tell you it came from Flint. Said we would get the answers here."

The scientist's eyes widened, "Did you say Flint? He hasn't been around for many months, but if what you're saying is true...he's finally returned."

Misty questioned, "Hold on a second. You speak of this Flint guy, but who is he exactly?"

The scientist quickly rebounded from his face of awe and informed her, "Flint was our main excavator for fossils. He would go into the mountains around Pewter, most notoriously, Mount Moon and bring back fossils for us to study and hope to one day revive."

"So you mean..." Misty was starting to piece together what this piece of rock actually was.

"Yes." Jack nodded. "What you have brought me..." He paused for a second. "Is a fossil."

"A FOSSIL?" All three yelled out simultaneously.

"Yes. If you please, follow me." He began walking to a different area of the museum with the group in tow. They eventually came to a set of doors and the scientist gestured for them to follow him through them. When they walked into the new room, they were astounded by what they saw.

The room they walked into was gigantic, with the ceiling at least twenty to thirty feet in the air with cooling fans spiraling towards the top. The room had to be at least a couple hundred feet in both length and width, if not larger. The place was littered with machines everywhere, all doing various things that the trio had no clue what each could possibly do. Scientists were moving left and right all throughout the room, doing various things that seemed to look important.

Old Pokémon bones were on a couple of the tables with more scientists looking through microscopes and screen displaying some sort of data that looked foreign to our heroes, but Ash noticed an entire skeleton of an old Pokémon which looked to be of Aerodactyl, an old Pokémon that went extinct a millennia of generations ago. To see the remains of one astounded Ash as he had never seen anything like it.

As they continued walking Leaf and Misty were taking in the sights as they continued to follow the lead-scientist, this place was truly amazing and both wondered how much was discovered here. Misty notified Leaf to look over to where she was looking and saw that there were actual Pokémon being researched here.

Leaf had always imagined that labs tortured and humiliated Pokémon, but the view in front of her changed her perspective of it all. The scientists attending to the Pokémon were very gentle with the creatures and they showed care and respect to the Pokémon they were working with.

Pokémon from all sizes they saw, from Pokémon as small as Diglett and Magnemite, to huge giants like Arbok and even Onix were treated with the utmost care and respect as the scientists continued to do their work.

Cyndaquil and Sentret were astounded at what they saw, watching these Pokémon and feeling their content with being there made them happy. Fellow Pokémon always wanted the best for each other and the joyous feeling that was hitting them was a relief to say the least. They had heard tales of Pokémon in these types of places being mistreated and abused, so when they saw that no Pokémon here was getting harsh treatment, they felt a new sense of respect for humans.

Catching their disbelief, Scientist Jack commented, "I can tell that all 5 of you are in awe of this place."

Ash, Lead and Misty just nodded, not really trusting their words at the moment. Ash's jaw was literally hanging from his mouth, while Leaf and Misty were still wide-eyed.

He laughed as he continued, "This place truly is magnificent. It _Is_ the largest laboratory in Kanto, only the finest is expected out of everyone here."

They walked a little more before Jack stopped in front of an area that consisted of a machine of some kind, a table that had various vials of liquid stored in them, a leather chair, a digital clock on the wall that told the time in bright red numbers, and a wall-phone that was silver in color.

Jack spoke up as he turned on the machine, "The reason I brought you three here today is because I wanted to confirm that this artifact truly is a fossil. We've had rocks similar to this one look like fossils, but have been duds when ran through this machine. What this piece of equipment does is verify that whatever is put into it, is legit, as well at tell us what exactly it is. As long as its been documented, it'll know right quick. Should this be a fossil, and by my eyes, it is, then it will tell us what kind of fossil it is as well. Are you ready to see magic happen?"

"YEAH!" The trio screamed in glee.

"Alrighty then! Inserting fossil in now." He said as he place the fossil onto the little plate that was used for scanning items.

They watched as red lights began to spew out from the machine onto the fossil, most certainly, gathering data from the outside to trace back to its known information to find a match. The lights were almost like bar codes in the sense that they were very narrow, and of course red.

It was another minute or so before the scanning process was done and began printing out something on a piece of paper. The elderly scientist picked up the paper and began reading its contents before nodding to himself and turning to the kids.

He said, "Well, I can indeed confirm that this is a fossil. No question about it."

All three of their faces lit up like a Christmas tree at the exciting news. "That's great!" Leaf said. "So what kind of fossil is it?"

He began reading the paper once again and spoke, "It appears to be that of a **Skull** fossil. So at one point in time, the creature behind this was a Cranidos."

Misty spoke out. "Fascinating. It's truly incredible how long this fossil has lasted. Does it say how old this fossil is?"

Jack shook his head. "Unfortunately, no exact date is mentioned, as more testing would need to be done. I can give a good approximation though. Based on its color and shape alone, I could get that this is anywhere from fifty-million to one-hundred-million years old."

"Really?"

"Really. Even more so, it looks like it could have the possibility of being revived."

If any eyes weren't bulging out of their sockets at this point, they were now. To revive a Pokémon fossil, it needs to be in pristine condition to even qualify. Fossils cannot be chipped, scathed or broken in any form, otherwise, the revival process will not work. Furthermore, it is required for some DNA traces to be leftover on a fossil to build up that new body that it once had. Luckily, Pokémon DNA can be found inside of the fossils, but it isn't the easiest process to extract it without damaging the shell. Hence why there aren't many fossils that can be revived and even less ancient Pokémon from many a millennia ago.

"You think that this fossil can be brought back to life Jack?" Ash questioned.

"If we can find DNA traces, absolutely. The Pewter Museum of Science is more than just a museum. We have world-class, top of the line scientists, like myself, to understand and figure out the astronomy of all life on this planet. We will do our best to make sure it sees the light of day once more."

"That's amazing!" Leaf exclaimed. "So, how long does it take to revive?"

"The resurrection process does take some time to complete. It's a complex system of requirements that must be taken with the upmost delicacy, in a certain order. On average, a fossil takes upwards of six months to fully resurrect, and that's assuming we find the DNA. "

Leaf sighed. "Another long wait for a Pokémon that we would like to see." She elaborated more to the scientist. "One of our Pokemon," she gestured towards Ash and herself, "were actually in eggs for a very long time, and it wasn't until recently that we were able to see them."

Jack understood completely. "Ah yes, eggs. A fresh egg does take a good long while to hatch."

"Eventually, they became our Pokemon though, so it was definitely worth the wait."

"I see." Jack looked down to see their Cyndaquil and Sentret out and marveled at the sight of the Shiny Pokemon. "I noticed your Sentret was of an unusual color. Do you know how rare that is?"

Leaf nodded. "I do sir. Professor Oak said that this little one was exceptionally rare. It was all alone and sad one day while I was in Johto, so I took her in. She was my very first Pokemon!"

"Sentret!" The little cream-colored said as it jumped up into Leaf arms to show her affection. Leaf had a wide smile on her face as she scratched behind Sentret's ears, her favorite spot.

"A good bond with your Pokemon is always a great thing. It shows trust and that is something anybody with eyes can see." Jack explained.

"Do you have any Pokemon Jack?" Ash questioned the scientist.

He nodded and said. "I do, and they have been tremendously helpful to me over the years. I couldn't ask for anything more out of them. Unfortunately though, it is time for me to get back to work. I appreciate you bringing in this fossil and we'll do everything we can to bring it back to life. Since you were the ones that brought it in, you will be the first we contact if we find success. You said you have ties with Professor Oak, so we'll contact him to relay the message to you down the line. Is that fair?"

"That's fair." Ash said.

Since they wanted to get some training in, Jack led them out of the museum and told them to stop by any time they wished for either updates or just to look around. They told him they'd be back one day and that they would look forward to it.

 _ **June 13th, 2006**_

Two days have passed since their departure from the Museum and discovering that their rock was actually a well-kept fossil. During this time, the duo got in a bit of training, with some help and pointers coming from Misty. There wasn't anything spectacular over the past 48 hours, except for the training obviously, and getting to look around the museum a little more since they didn't get much of a view in the main area last time.

Pikachu and Vulpix were still segregating themselves from the main training group, however, they were taking an interest in the training and seeing how much Ash and Leaf care about their Pokemon to help them get as strong as they could be. Their trainers wished they would join the group, but knew they had to be patient with them since they were very new to the group still.

Both trainers realized that they had completely forgotten to call their mothers' and were terrified of the call ahead of them. One can expect a verbal confrontation and they got one indeed. Let's just say a lot of sorry's were said and a lot of promises claiming that they would call them more often. The rest shall a mystery.

Flint somehow appeared out of nowhere the previous night and he overheard them talking about the gym. He laughed and almost mocked them as he explained that he couldn't beat Brock and his rock Pokemon. It was a bit irritating for Ash, but that infuriated his Pokémon, Elekid especially seemed to have taken offense to that. After he had walked off, Ash had to encourage his Pokémon and that with hard work and dedication, they'd be able to beat the gym.

That same previous night, he had chosen his Pokémon to use in the upcoming gym battle and made sure not to tell the girls until it happened. He had figured that _they_ had already figured out he was using Elekid, but his second Pokémon, neither one of them would see coming. He only had three choices to choose from and since Elekid was a given, only two to choose from. Pikachu didn't even come up as a thought for Ash since he can't get him to train with the group, let alone ask for its assistance in battle. All he knew was that he would be battling today for sure.

Right now though, they are standing right in front of the gym and nobody was really impressed with the design. Laying there was just a bunch of stones that somehow kept the structure intact with the words "Pewter Gym" in the top-left corner of the largest stone. Lots of gray and nothing fancy, but it served its purpose.

"This is the Pewter Gym?" Ash questioned.

"Cynda-quil?" His fire Pokémon questioned.

"Yeah," Leaf said standing right beside him, "My X2 led us here and it does say Pewter Gym if you look at the sign, er, Stone...Stone sign." She finished with an awkward tone edged in her voice.

"Have you ever been here Misty?" Ash asked his newest friend.

"Nope. Gym leaders don't really have a reason to visit other gyms. You can visit them obviously, but I've never had any reason to come here." Misty explained, standing on the other side of Ash.

"Fo. Fo-Mantis." Leaf's Pokémon, Gaige said.

"Well, let's go!" Ash exclaimed as he held the door open for his friends. They both showed their gratitude as they walked in with Ash behind him.

The gym leader itself wasn't all that appealing to the eye, mainly because there wasn't much to see. It was dim at best and not much could be seen other than silhouettes of what looked to be some podiums holding the gym up.

"Hello?!" Ash called out to get someone's attention.

The three kids looked around before they heard, "Who goes there?"

They turned to where that voice came from and saw a light appear to show what looked to be a teenager, with his eyes closed! Sitting in an Indian style position. Criss-Cross Applesauce if you will.

Ash took note of his appearance, his eyes were closed, which Ash found weird, but other than that, he looked to be an average teenager. Tanned skin, with quite the spiky hair. His attire looked to just be everyday clothes, an orange T-Shirt with a green vest and brown jeans. He guessed Brock was no older than sixteen.

"So you must be Brock!" Ash called out as he face towards him. "I'm Ash Ketchum from Pallet Town! I challenge you to a Gym battle!"

"Is this your first Gym match?" The rock leader questioned.

Ash nodded. "The first of many." He finished with a look of readiness.

"Then you should know that a gym match is different from other battles. This match is for Pokémon league authorization. There are special rules." He informed the young man.

Ash was quick to inform _Him_ of the rules. "Right. For beginning trainers, you usually do a two versus two match."

Brock was impressed. "You seem to have done your homework. Most rookies come in here without a clue of what their doing. That is their downfall. Tell me, how long have you been with that Pokémon?" He points to Ash's fire type.

"About three years now. We've been quite a team! In terms of our journey though, about a week and a half." Ash voiced with authority.

Brock nodded. "Yes, your Cyndaquil seems to be very well trained. It _Might_ have a chance to win." He finished with a cocky smirk.

This ticked Ash off. "What do you mean _Might_ huh? Just because he's a fire type in a rock gym, doesn't mean he's completely outmatched. Just worry about your own Pokémon and I'll worry about mine."

"Suit yourself." Brock stated. "As a gym leader, I have to accept every challenge. So let's just get this over with." With that, he snapped his fingers.

When noise vibrated through the mini-arena, the light above the trio flickered on and the walls began to open unveiling a battlefield of rocks that almost seemed to shape mini-mountains. They quickly got out of the way with Ash heading over to the trainer box with the girls heading up to the viewing area. After another minute, the two halves of the battlefield connected together almost like that one missing piece from a puzzle.

Ash had returned his fire type after the two halves of the battlefield clicked together, Brock leapt from his sitting position onto his trainer box and said. "Let the match begin!"

 _ **GYM BATTLE**_

 **BROCK STONE VS. ASH KETCHUM**

 **BATTLE BEGIN!**

"Alright! Elekid, I Choose You!" Ash yelled out as he threw Elekid's Pokéball high into the air. When it opened, a flash of light sprang out from the inside of the ball with Elekid's form taking shape right in front of his trainer. "KID!" It shouted out.

"Geodude, GO!" Brock yelled from his side of the battlefield. Out came a rock type Pokémon (obviously) who's body took to the shape of a geode rock that sprouted arms. "Dude!" It cried out.

"Okay Elekid." Ash voiced out to his electric type. "This is our first big gym match together. Do your best out there!"

"El-Ki" It responded back while flexing his arms.

Brock shouted. "I'll start, Geodude, use your Tackle attack!"

Geodude, with quite the precision, landed its full-body tackle and knocked Elekid a few feet backwards. The impact didn't seem to affect Elekid as much as Brock might have intended, but still did some damage nonetheless.

"It's fast. But we're faster. Show them some real speed and use Quick Attack, followed by an Ice Punch!"

Without hesitation, the electric Pokémon leapt forward with its quick attack, while also charging up an Ice Punch. Since both Pokémon were close proximity, the move happened in a flash. Elekid smacked Geodude across the face with his left fist that was his Quick Attack, while at the same time, turning around and back-handing the rock type with a super effective Ice maneuver.

The Quick Attack alone wouldn't have done much, but combining two moves, especially one that involves an ice type, made the callout quite effective. Geodude is looking a bit gassed now.

Brock was a bit impressed, he hadn't seen a move that effective against his rock Pokémon in quite some time. "Geodude, fight back with a rollout!"

Granting his trainer's wish, the Geode-like rock Pokémon began spinning about like a bowling ball reaching for its pins. It managed to strike Elekid twice before a counter of his own came into play.

"Use Low Kick to counter it!"

By the time Geodude was coming back around for his third strike, Elekid has already powered up his left leg with the fighting type energy. When the rock Pokémon was about to connect, Elekid knocked his opponent back quite a number of feet and into some rocks on the battlefield. The electric Pokémon went for a complete knockout and that's exactly what he got.

Looking to his Pokémon, Brock saw that it had swirls in his eyeballs, signaling that he could no longer continue.

The Pewter gym leader can't even remember the last time his Geodude got bested so quickly. He looked over to his opponent's Elekid and saw how well-trained he looked. It was no easy task to teach Ice Punch, let alone Low Kick to any Pokmeon, no matter the skill level. And yet here was this no-name, coming in and wiping the floor with an upward tier Pokémon of his. His downfall in this encounter was underestimation. Well, no more.

Misty and Leaf were quite amazed at what just happened. "Well, that happened." Misty said.

Leaf only smiled. "That's Ash for you. His drive to become the best only makes him stronger. You'll have some tough competition Misty." She said turning to her new friend.

Misty could only nod as she watched the battle continue on. Even though Ash had the advantage now, this battle was far from over.

After returning Geodude, Brock voiced out. "It seems I have underestimated you if you were able to knock out my Geodude so quickly."

"We're just getting warmed up!" Ash answered back with enthusiasm.

"El-Elekid!" His electric Pokémon chanted.

The rock type gym leader seemed impressed with their confidence. "Well get ready, because the next Pokémon won't be so easy. Onix, GO!" He yelled as he threw his next Pokémon in the air.

What revealed was a large snake-like Pokémon whose body was cluttered with rocks from head to tail. What was most notable was the sheer size this Pokémon possessed. It had to be at least 25, if not 30 feet long in length. This thing was massive.

Ash and Leaf had read about Onix in their studies, but this was their first time in actually seeing one **_this_** close and they were astonished. They both had general knowledge on Onix, but seeing how great it was and how much mass it consumed in sheer space alone. It was just a 'wow' moment for them.

But Ash had to focus, or else he wouldn't be getting his gym badge today. Ash was positive that Brock had stronger Pokémon in his arsenal if trainers came to him with more badges than his, so he knew that Brock wouldn't send out a Pokémon that would absolutely crush his. It may out due Elekid in size, but certainly not speed. Ash would use that to his advantage.

He noticed his Elekid shiver a bit in fear. Who wouldn't if you had to face something at least ten-plus times your size.

"Stay focused Elekid." Ash told his second ever Pokémon. He turned to his trainer. "Now's not the time to show fear. You're strong, you can do this. I believe in you!"

Elekid looked his trainer in the eye and saw how sincere he was. He realized that this battle was his, as long as he was in control, he would be able to win. He just had to follow his trainer and he would be alright. He finally nodded towards Ash.

"Great! Now use Ice Punch to weaken it!" Ash called out his command.

Elekid bolted from his position and started powering up his right fist with the ice type energy he possessed.

Brock was quick though, "Onix, use Dig and get underground!"

Quick as lightning, Onix obeyed his trainer and dug his way underground just in time before the ice punch connected. All Elekid hit was a mini-mountain which completely crumbled slightly before freezing entirely.

"Stay wary Elekid! We don't know where Onix is. Listen out for it if you can!" Ash let his electric know.

Elekid responded with another nod and closed his eyes to try and hear out where exactly Onix was. But he was too late because as soon as he closed his eyes to focus on the sounds underneath his feet, Onix came charging up and knocked Elekid right into another rock with his tail.

Since Dig was a ground-type move, it was super effective and Elekid looked like he had seen better days. He shook his head and tried to focus on the task at hand, but was seeing stars as he saw three Onix for a second before shaking his head again to get the dizziness out of his eyes.

Brock wasn't done though, "Onix, use Bind on Elekid!"

Since Elekid was still a bit dizzy, he was unable to comprehend anything until he felt roughness wrap around his body. It was only then he realized that he was completely surrounded by rocks and they were squeezing tighter.

Ash was worried that this battle might not last longer. Elekid was his trump card on this battle and he needed him healthy for as long as possible. He looked for any openings and luckily for him, he did. "Elekid, use Low Kick on Onix's face!"

Elekid's left leg just so happened to not completely wrapped in Onix's Bind. He luckily was able to hear his trainer's commands and started swinging his left leg into Onix's face to try and get free. Again, fighting type moves deal quite some damage to rocks and Elekid had gotten three hits in before something else happened.

"Onix, continue your Bind and Slam Elekid into the ground!"

Onix roared at his trainer's commands and slammed Elekid hard into the ground. The end result was swirls in the electric type's eyes, meaning he was down for the count.

Ash only then realized he made a bad call. You never want a Pokémon standing still when your opponent is using Dig. He berated himself over a mistake like this. Elekid did the absolute best that he could, but his judgement prevented Elekid from doing better. He'd have to apologize later.

Now Ash had a difficult choice to make. Cyndaquil and Kaz were not as great of options as Elekid was since Cyndaquil was weak to rock types and Kaz was still a bit young, so he was worried sending him out in battle might be a mistake. And Pikachu wasn't even a thought crossing Ash's mind at the moment. He was really was in a bind of his own.

He swore he would do this battle all on his own and boy he was going to do it. "Elekid, return." He called out as the fainted electric type returned to his home.

He whispered to it. "I'm sorry I let you fail. I hope you'll forgive me." He finished as he put his Pokéball back on his belt and grabbed another. "Cyndaquil, I choose you!"

He threw the Pokéball and out came his starter. He was raring to go, and it was only then he realized the challenge. Standing in front of him was this colossus of a Pokémon. Cyndaquil knew he couldn't be afraid though, he couldn't let Ash down, especially with the high stakes.

Leaf and Misty widened their eyes when they saw Ash's fire type make its appearance on the field. They knew that _Ash_ knew that fire types were extremely weak to Rock types. They just hoped Ash knew what he was doing.

Brock was moderately surprised when he saw a fire type staring down his Onix. Usually he would see a water type, or even a grass type standing across from him when he released his Onix. He wondered what Ash had up his sleeve.

Cyndaquil was raring to go while Onix looked a bit injured because of those three low kicks he took square in the face. Ash was thankful he was able to get something in before Elekid was done.

Ash had a plan in mind, but it was extremely risky. If luck wasn't on his side here, he was not winning this battle.

"Cyndaquil, use Ember on Onix!" Ash commanded.

Brock now knew what Ash was thinking of and wasn't going to allow it if he had anything to say about it. "Onix, use Rock Throw to block!"

Since Ash had yelled out his command first, the embers started flying towards Onix before Brock got his call in and managed to strike it a bit before the Rock Throw blocked any and all access of the embers reaching its target.

Ash looked on and was disappointed that he didn't get what he was looking for, but he was not going to give up. "Cyndaquil, use that speed you possess to your advantage and use Flame Wheel!"

"Onix!" Brock shouted. "Dodge that Flame Wheel!"

Cyndaquil dashed off from his position and began spinning and generating heat from his body. Because he was spinning, the intensity of the heat was stronger than any ember could ever reach. Onix tried to get away from the mouse Pokémon, but he was too massive and the attack made its mark on Onix's tail.

After the attack connected, Onix's tail began to catch on fire and was now slightly burning.

Ash was elated at that, he knew the only way Cyndaquil could survive this by battle was playing the long game and used a luck-based strategy in hopes of getting a burn onto Onix and luckily for him, that strategy worked to perfection.

"Onix, use Tackle!" Brock commaned.

"Dodge it Cyndaquil!"

Since Onix was a large Pokémon, it was difficult to actually hit the fire-mouse Pokémon as wherever he would launch his body towards, the fire-type kept dashing out of that direction. Each time Onix missed its tackle though, it would take damage from the burn that was implanted by the fire type.

Brock wasn't giving up though, if his Pokémon was taking damage overtime, so would his opponent's. "Onix, change of plans. Use Sandstorm!"

The rock-snake began pounding on the ground with its tail and began spewing up dust that began circling almost like a tornado, only far less concentrated. Cyndaquil began taking in the effects of the sandstorm as little pricks began jabbing him. Each singular bit of damage he took didn't cause too much damage, but they were adding up fast.

Ash knew he was really on a limit now. But what could he do? He began looking around for some sort of idea, but nothing was coming to him. He just had to tough it out as much as he could and have faith that his starter could hold on.

One idea just came to mind though, "Cyndaquil, get on Onix's back and use Flame Wheel!"

It may not do too much damage, but everything helps. Cyndaqui bolted at his trainer's command and began climbing onto the large rock type's back and began charging up his attack.

"Shake it off Onix!" Brock yelled out.

When Onix began quivering his body, the fire type lost his balance and his attack cancelled. However, because he was in between one of the rocks at the time, Cyndaquil fell in to one of its small crevices and was now jammed in there.

When Ash saw this, he realized two things. Cyndaquil wasn't taking damage anymore and he had the rock type vulnerable."Cyndaquil! If you can hear me, use Flame Wheel where you are!"

Things were quiet for a moment before the rock-snake began shouting out in pain as the combination of the Flame Wheel and the burn status effect were taking place at the same time.

"Onix NO!" Brock shouted out. He had never had this happen to him before, where a Pokémon got stuck in between a couple of Onix's rocks. The rock type kept yelling in agony before falling to the ground with swirls in its eyes.

The battle was over.

Out of one of the cervices, Cyndaquil could be spotted poking its head out wondering why Onix had fallen. It only took a second to dawn on him that he had actually won his first major battle.

"We did it Cyndaquil!" Ash voiced out.

The fire type heard what he said and ran over to his trainer and leapt at him. Ash caught him and began celebrating what an awesome victory it was.

Brock sighed as he pulled out his Pokéball and said, "Onix return." After the rock-snake was back in its home, Brock said, "You did amazing out there. Take a good rest."

He then looked up to see Ash celebrating and he honestly couldn't blame him. It was a tough battle and one that Brock hadn't experienced in such a long time. He hated seeing his Pokémon getting hurt though, it was never fun for him in that aspect, but providing a good challenge towards new and upcoming trainers was part of the gig. He actually couldn't even remember the last time he had lost. And when he did, the trainers were monotone at best, and yet this one was celebrating like he won the PokéPower lottery. There was something about him.

He walked over and that's when Ash noticed he was there and stopped talking and listened. "You impressed me today Ash, I honestly haven't had a battle as exhilarating and exciting like that in a long time. With that, I present you this, the Boulder Badge."

It was quite a simple design, an octagon-shaped shiny rock is what it represented. Ash took the badge in pride and added it to the inside of his vest. His first one of many. "Thanks Brock! It was an awesome battle!"

By that time, the girls had come running down from the stands to congratulate him. "That was amazing Ash! Congratulations on winning your first badge!" Leaf voiced to her best friend.

Misty joined in as well. "Well done Ash! You earned that badge!"

Brock was curious though. "I have to wonder though, how did you know that the crevices that are in between the rocks on Onix were his weak point? Usually, that's something only highly-skilled trainers know about."

Ash began rubbing the back of his head. "Honestly, I didn't know. When you had Onix wiggling around trying to get my Cyndaquil off, he just so happened to fall in there. I knew that was my only shot so I took it. I read about rock types having a really tough exterior, but in turn, having quite a soft interior. In the heat of battle though, I had completely forgotten about that. I'll have to remember that for the next time."

He then turned to his Cyndaquil, "You did a great job toughing it out and having faith in me, for that I'm forever grateful. You're training is paying off, and sooner or later, you'll become the strongest of your kind. Just look at what you did, in your first major battle you managed to beat a Pokémon that makes up at least 40 of you and had a type advantage. Keep that kind of passion up, and you'll always succeed Cyndaquil."

His words came from the heart and Cyndaquil knew that. He had won and Ash was proud of him because of it. The fire-mouse began tearing up a little; he had known it before, but that statement just solidified it. He would never fail Ash if he had any say in it.

Ash patted his back and said, "Take a rest alright? You've had enough excitement for one day." He explained as he returned Cyndaquil to his Pokéball.

After that was done, he turned to Brock once more and said. "Thanks again Brock. It was an awesome battle!"

He swatted his words, "No Ash, thank you. I actually learned a lot from this battle. I learned that I have so much more to learn about Pokémon. I learned to never underestimate anybody no matter how they look or act." Brock stopped as he began thinking about something. "You know it was never my intention to become a gym leader right?"

Ash's eyes widened at that. "What? Then why are you a gym leader then?"

Brock sighed, how could he put this? "Truth is, I always wanted to be a breeder. I never cared to make my Pokémon stronger just for the sake of getting stronger. For me...it was always about creating that bond with my Pokémon my own way. I don't want to force them to fight because it's what I want, I just them to be happy. That's why I've always wanted to be a breeder, and I fully intended to become one...that is until my father left."

"Your father?" Leaf questioned.

He nodded. "My father was the original leader of the Pewter gym. He was always the one who oversaw the entire operation here. But when my mom died, he figured he could just walk out and never look back. Since then, I've been taking care of ten little brothers and sisters all on my own, while running this gym. I had to give up my dream in order to care of the ones that should have been my parents' jobs to take care of. They counted on me, I could never leave them alone."

Ash felt sympathy for Brock, while Leaf and Misty had a tear rolling down their faces at the sad tale they were hearing. They all knew it was totally unfair to Brock, they just wish they could do something about it.

Suddenly, the front doors to the gym opened up and in came the same guy that gave the trio that rock, now known fossil. Flint.

He walked up to Brock and stood a few feet away from him. He suddenly reached up and took off his red beanie, nothing surprisingly there until he suddenly took off His BEARD! They were so confused.

"FLINT?!" Ash exclaimed. They were all completely startled when the man took off his beard. Leaf was completely confused. "Why do you look like Brock?" She finished as she looked back at the Pewter gym leader. It was only then she started connecting the pieces in her brain.

Brock answered to the group. "He's my father." A bit of disdain was in his voice.

All three kids were flabbergasted at this point. Looks of shock, surprise and disbelief were on their faces. Brock's face looked to have a bit of resentment as he stared down his father. "Brock...I know my actions are inexcusable. After your mother died, I felt abandoned. And I didn't know how to deal with the pain of her gone. I figured if I could achieve my dream of becoming a Pokémon trainer, that it would all go away. Not only did I not achieve that, but I failed miserably. It wasn't the only thing I failed miserably on though, as I failed on being a father to MY children. I should have never let you do my job, and for that, I am truly sorry. It's time I start taking care of my family, you go on and live your dreams Brock. Find the path you wish to walk on, go out there and achieve every single thing you've wanted over the years. Do what you want, not what you're forced to do."

Brock immediately responded. "First, there are some things I have to tell you."

"After all these years, you must have a lot of pent-up frustration, so I want you to get everything off your chest."

"Here." Brock gave his father what looked to be a miniature sewing kit. "Uhhh..."

Everyone was just confused at that. Leaf had sworn that Brock was going to berate his father about not taking care of the responsibilities that he should have been taking care of all these years, while Ash's mind just went blank when he saw the thread and needle. Brock then started listing off a million different things that his father needed to do if he truly wanted to start taking care of his family.

Flint then began flailing his arms around all comedic like as he tried to get Brock to slow down as he pulled out a pen and notepad that he just so happened to have on him and began hurriedly listing things off as best as he could while trying to keep up. "Slow down, slow down, I can't write that fast!"

Brock was going a hundred miles an hour with his list of things that his father needed to know to take care of his children. It was humorous to the trio as they tried to suppress their laughter as they watched the scene unfold in front of them. It went on for another couple of minutes before Brock finally stopped and Flint was still writing things down on his notepad.

When he seemed to finally finish that, Brock looked at his father and said, "I know it's a lot, but it was a lot for me when I first started with this. If I can do it, you can do it. I'm trusting you dad." He finished with a look that said 'You are going to do this.'

Flint seemed a bit scared at that look and quickly complied. "Yes son. I have everything I need to know. Everything will be fine, I promise you."

Brock nodded. "Good."

Ash then walked up to Brock and said, "You know Brock. If you're going out on a journey, why not come with us? We'd enjoy having another member to have around. What do you say?"

Brock looked stunned. He questioned, "You really wouldn't mind having me around?"

It was then, Leaf chimed in. "Not at all. The more the merrier. Right Misty?"

The cerulean gym leader nodded, "Yeah, I think it'd be fun."

Brock had nothing else to lose so he jumped at the opportunity. "I'd love to travel with you guys. Alright, let's do this!" He finished with a grin.

After they were done with the gym, they had all agreed to meet up at the Pokémon center the next day once business was taken care of. The trio would head back there to get Ash's Pokémon healed up while Brock and Flint went to their home to help Brock get packed for the journey he was finally able to go on. And to reintroduce Flint to his kids and let them know what was going on.

The aforementioned trio did a couple things back at the center. After getting Ash's Pokémon healed up, the duo decided to call their mothers on account of the promise they had made since they didn't want to feel the wrath of them ever again. It was mostly just a casual discussion with Ash mentioning that he won his first gym badge and that his mom was proud of him. He updated Professor Oak as well and updated him on anything that had happened, which wasn't much that the professor needed.

Ash had excused himself and went to a secluded area to talk to his Elekid. He let him out and the trainer could see that his electric type was disappointed in himself. "Elekid." Ash spoke.

His second Pokémon looked up to him with sad eyes before looking back down in shame. He had failed his trainer and Ash could tell what was going through his mind. "You didn't fail me Elekid." He stated. This brought life to the Pokémon's eyes as he looked back up. "You may have been defeated today, but in the end, we won the battle. It doesn't matter if you finished it, or if Cyndaquil finished it, you paved the way for us to win. It was a group effort, that's what battling is all about. If anything, I failed you."

"KID?!" He looked defiant and he shook his head and pointed to himself.

Ash shook his head though. "No, it was my fault. I left you in a place of vulnerability by telling you to stand still. It was my mistake and don't say it was yours, you were just following a command I made. Don't be so hard on yourself, we all lose sometimes. You just have to pick yourself back up and move on. Please, don't drag yourself down simply because you didn't finish the battle all on your own. I relied on you yes, but I also relied on Cyndaquil as well. I had faith in both of you."

Elekid thought about what he said and realized he was right. Elekid wanted to be strong for his trainer, he knew about his disadvantage in battle, but didn't let it get to him. Ash was just reminding him of what he could do within his limit, and Elekid just so happened to reach his.

Ash scratched behind Elekid's plug on his head, "You may not have electricity at your disposal, but you have everything else. We'll make you the strongest of your kind. I promise that, the same promise I made to Cyndaquil. Just believe in yourself and I'll take you there. Alright?"

Elekid wanted to get as strong as he could and he knew Ash would take him there. So he nodded and suddenly he was back in bright spirits. "Now come on." Ash stated as he stood up. "I hear some dinner is waiting for us and I don't know about you, but I'm starving after today's battle."

At the mention of food, Elekid was dashing out the door already. Ash laughed and tried to catch up.

 _ **June 14th, 2006**_

Ash, Leaf, Misty, and Brock for that matter, all woke up feeling great. It was a new day, and they were heading into a new direction in their lives, especially Brock. After so many years of having to put his dreams to the side in order to take care of his family, he was finally getting out there and discovering what the world had to offer. It had honestly been the lightest he felt in years, as the weight of the world had been taken off of his shoulders.

They had made plans to head out of town a little after 9 A.M, as Mount Moon was about a day's walk from Pewter City. From there, it was another day's walk to get to Cerulean, which is where their next destination was.

Brock took a quick shower to get ready for the first day of his new life. When he had went to bed that previous night, he had expected things to be a mess and that he would have to help clean it up, but that wouldn't be the case. When he stepped out into the living area, he noticed everything that needed to be done, seemed to have been already taken care of. He noticed his dad repeatedly checking his notepad that he had scribbled on and was amused by it. It would take him some time to get use to, but he knew his father would be alright. Everybody seemed to be enjoying their breakfast, especially Timmy with his cold spaghetti. Yep, they'd be fine.

...

The group, now consisting of four trainers, were standing with their backs turned to the path that led to Mount Moon. In front of them, was Brock's entire family, all ten brothers and sisters, as well as their father. Brock had been hugging each one of his little brothers and sisters, making him promise that they'll behave and accept their father. But not without giving him a bit of a hard time as punishment.

He then got to his brother Forrest, "Well little brother, it looks like you've officially become the big brother of the household. Make sure to help dad take care of those knuckleheads, they will appreciate it."

"I will Brock." Stated Forrest. "If I could help you take care of them, then dad shouldn't be too much of a hassle."

He then went to whisper in Forrest's ear, "And I better not hear you peaking on Nurse Joy or Officer Jenny. At least when I'm not around." He finished with a diabolical grin.

Forrest just snickered and whispered back, "Brock, true Green is never seen."

He shared a laugh with his younger brother before turning to face his father. "Alright, this is it. Just remember to do everything on that list and you'll be just fine. I can't thank you enough for finally coming back."

Flint embraced his son. "I should be the one thanking you Brock. You've given me something no one else has or ever will. You gave me the chance to be a father again and to be the man of the household. You go follow your own dreams Brock and don't look back until you have fulfilled them. Go where you need to, do what you must, just promise me you'll fulfill you dreams no matter what."

Brock nodded. "I promise. I'll come back and I'll make all of you proud of who I am."

"We're already proud Brock. Just go do what you love with people you trust. Have fun my son, and I'll see you soon."

"You can plan on that. Especially since I have a feeling you're going to mess something up."

Flint was floored at that, "Uhh, come on Brock, have you no faith in me? I'm doing my best."

Brock just laughed. "I'm only giving you a hard time."

Flint breathed a sigh of relief. He then turned to Ash and the gang. "Remember that fossil I gave you the other day?"

They all nodded and wondered where he was going with it. "When it gets revived, it'll need a home. I want one of you to take care of it. I've already informed Jack about this and he agreed after some research is done to that Cranidos. You can decide amongst yourselves, but I feel it should go to one of you."

Ash questioned, "Are you sure?"

"Positive. You may not have known it, but I've seen the bonds you three have created with your Pokémon and a creature like Cranidos after all this time is going to need it. You just make sure than when Jack calls, you come back here. Understood?"

They all agreed to that. Flint nodded and after one last goodbye, both groups began walking their respective paths. One back to the Pewter Gym, one heading into Mount Moon.

It was only then that Ash realized something. He was shorter than everyone in the group by a whole two inches. Ash just sighed.

 **And Chapter five is done! In this chapter, I wrote my first official full gym battle and I want your guys' criticism on how it went. Where I should improve, if something seems odd, if it's too long or too short. Let me know! I love this stuff. Chapter six is on the way. And I'll give you a teaser just because you all have been so patient with me. :)**

 **PLEASE review the chapters! I love your guys' feedback and it keeps me going. Writing is fun when you just have a million ideas and not enough time to get them all down. REVIEW, REVIEW, REVIEW! Please? I said please. Isn't 'please' the magic word? Or was it tacos? I honestly can't remember. Well, whatever it is, please and tacos! I love tacos. *sigh***

 **Chapter VI: Mount Moon Paranoia**

 **Team Update:**

 **Ash: [Cyndaquil, Male.] [Elekid, Male.] [Rockruff, Male. Nickname, Kaz] [Pikachu, Male]**

 **Leaf: [Sentret, Female. Shiny] [Shinx, Male] [Fomantis, Female. Nickname, Gaige.] [Vulpix, Female]**

 **Misty: [Staryu] [Starmie] [Shellder, Female]**

 **Brock: [Geodude, Male] [Onix, Male]**

 **-MidnightJD**


	6. Chapter VI: Mount Moon Paranoia

**I'll just put this right here, when a "(1)" appears, play the Heart Gold/Soul Silver rival theme, and when the "(2)" appears, play the Black and White 2 Rival Theme. The extended 30 minute version for both. I was listening to those when I wrote it and it fit so well. "(3)" is when you can stop the rival themes as they don't fit what happens afterwards. Highly recommended. ENJOY!**

* * *

 **Chapter VI: Mount Moon Paranoia**

 ** _June 15th, 2006_**

"Sentret, use Power-Up-Punch!" Leaf commanded her Pokémon.

Her Shiny Sentret leapt from her position and began powering up her left fist with her fighting-type energy in preparation for its super-effective hit.

"Ahhh! Magnemite, try and dodge it!" Her opponent who was a young boy who looked to be no older than 12 years old, commanded his floating steel magnet. It would prove to be for naught though as the Scout Pokémon connected with its super-effective Power-Up-Punch.

The opponent's Magnemite flew backwards a good eight feet or so with a single swirl where its eyeball usually resides.

"Magnemite is unable to battle. Sentret wins! Trainers, please call out your next Pokémon!" Brock called out as he was the stand-in referee for this trainer battle.

Leaf called back her Pokémon to her Pokéball. "Great job Sentret. You won without breaking a sweat. I'm proud." She expressed her gratitude as she brings out her next Pokémon. "Shinx, you're up!"

Out came the other Pokémon that was caught from the Kanto Power Plant a couple years prior. This Pokémon was a quadrupedal as opposed to a bipedal like the one Ash has. It's face is mostly of baby-blue color with eyes so bright that it could light up anywhere like a Christmas tree. It had a tail that ended with a star and looked cute all things considering. This was the Flash Pokémon, Shinx.

The young unnamed trainers tried to stand tough. "You only won because you had a type advantage, if I had known you were gonna use a move like that, I would have used something different."

"Please, call out your Pokémon Jake!" Brock voiced with authority to the now-named Jake, as his patience was running a bit thin.

"Psh, whatever. Metapod, get out there!" He said as he threw his Pokéball towards the ground. This Pokémon had...some character to it. It was a giant green pod looking specimen that was shielding the Caterpie inside while it was evolving into a Butterfree. Though this Metapod looked to be more of a Mint-Green rather than a Forest-Green. The lighter the green is on a Metapod, the less healthy it is, which in turn means it'll take even longer to evolve. The entire group noticed how light the color was and shook their heads.

Before anything else was said though, Shinx looked to give quite a death glare to his opponent and the Metapod shivered in fear a bit. Misty had an idea so she questioned Ash, "Does Shinx have intimidate?"

Ash nodded as he looked on. "Yeah. We found this out when a couple Fearow were giving some Pidgey trouble back in Pallet Town. Needless to say," He said as he looked to her, "We haven't seen those Fearow since." Misty giggled at that.

Ash and Misty looked on to the battle at hand before Leaf called out, "Shinx, use Tackle!" Shinx began dashing its way over towards the Metapod with impressive speed. It wasn't quite the speed of a quick attack, but Shinx was called the Flash Pokémon for more reasons than one.

"It's fast!" Jake chanted. "Metapod, uhh, use..." He wouldn't get to finish his command as Leaf's Shinx, with full force, Tackled the Metapod into the ground. Metapod looked dazed now and wasn't exactly sure where it was, but Leaf wasn't about to let up one bit. She had this battle in her pocket and she wasn't about to give the other trainer an edge.

"Finish it with Ice Fang!" Since the Flash Pokémon was only about two feet away from its target, it casually walked over to his opponent and bit down onto its body with sub-zero temperatures transferring from his fangs to the shell.

It ended with swirls in Metapod's eyes, but that wasn't all. Metapod wasn't just knocked out, it was completely frozen in ice.

Brock made it official. "Metapod is unable to battle. Shinx wins! Which means the victory goes to Sentret, Shinx and Leaf." He stated as he rose his left arm towards the victor.

"Amazing work Shinx! Great job!" She praised her Pokémon.

"Shinx!" He squealed in approval.

Jake looked like a ticking time bomb before he put his hands behind his head and screamed. "NOOOO! I DIDN'T EVEN GET TO USE HARDEN YET! IT'S FAVORITE MOVE! AHHHH!" His scream was so loud that a couple of the natural flying type Pokémon who lived in the area starting flying away from the trees in hopes to get the screeching out of their ears.

The opposing trainer returned his Pokémon and claimed. "Next time you won't be so lucky!" He finished as he ran off to who knows where.

Leaf stared at the position Jake was formerly standing in for about five seconds before scoffing. "You think trainers would be a bit more respectful. I know how you feel now Ash." She finished as she turned to her best friend.

Ash nodded. It wasn't any surprise to say the least since newer trainers usually just ran off after a battle without so much as a handshake to show good sportsmanship. It had happened to Ash about a week ago and now it happened to Leaf.

She continued. "It makes me wonder if this will be a regular occurrence."

"Trust me, it happens more often than not."

None of the current group had said that so they turned to where the noise had come from to find an Asian-looking male who seemed to be their age. He had dark orange hair that went down to his shoulder blades. His attire consisted of a long-sleeve jacket with two different colors ending in a diagonal line of each other, making one sleeve all red, and the other all black, specifically, his right arm had the red sleeve and his left arm had the black sleeve. He had dark blue jeans with black and white sneakers, with his eyes consisting of a hazel color. He stands at five foot, three inches. This person was one of the new trainers Ash and Leaf had met back at Professor Oak's laboratory.

Ash recognized him. "Hey Grayson! How you been?"

He walked to Ash and shared a fist-bump. "I've been good! You seem to be carrying yourself well so far." He turned and saw Leaf and took a respectful bow. "Greetings Leaf."

"Hi Grayson." She waved.

He then noticed the two newer companions traveling with the duo, which of course, he recognized. "Oh wow. The Pewter City Gym Leader Brock and one of the Cerulean Gym Leaders Misty! You two have been busy haven't you? Should I expect Lieutenant Surge and Erika when I meet up with you guys next time?" He joked.

Brock laughed as he found the joke quite funny. "Former Gym Leader actually, but that was a good one. I don't think that'll happen though."

The female red-head said, "We could always get Erika to join I were convincing enough." She said as she pulled out a mallet, seemingly from nowhere.

Grayson was about to comment on that when he suddenly frowned and spoke out. "Katrina! You agreed you'd come out and talk! It's only Ash and Leaf, along with some respected gym leaders. Please come out!" By that time, he turned to one specific tree about ten feet away.

Coming out from behind _that_ very tree came a female with a pixie-cut style haircut that was jet black, resembling Ash's hair color. Her attire consists of a brown coat with pockets just below the collar region and down by her waist. Her pants are black cargo pants with black and blue shoes with a forest green eye color. She stands at five foot, three inches. She seemed to be looking away with shy eyes.

"Katrina!" Leaf exclaimed and walked over to her.

She looked up and saw Leaf walking towards her and a small smile appeared on her face. "Hi Leaf." She greeted in a small voice.

Leaf noticed her shyness towards the group and offered her to join them. "Come on, you know we don't bite. Come say hi to our new friends."

Katrina seemed hesitant, but agreed nonetheless and walked behind the brunette.

"You know Kat," Grayson started with his hands on his hips, "I thought if you met up with Leaf again, you would come out of your shell a little more. How will you compete in PWT if you can't even confront a couple of your friends?"

The pixie-haired female just looked away again before Leaf chastised him. "Hey, Katrina just needs time to warm up to new people. And did you just say PWT?"

Grayson's face lit up. "Yeah! Kat's gonna compete at next month's Pay-Per-View! She's a shoe-in since she's undefeated right now! We met up back in Viridian City and agreed to travel together, of course she was hesitant at first. But where she lacks people skills, she excels in battling. It's quite the contrasting trait she seems to carry."

Katrina shook her head. "I'm not that good. I'm still a beginner."

"Nonsense!" Grayson yelled out. "Every time you win, those other trainers run out faster than a pack of Poochyena chasing their prey! It's very amusing!"

Ash questioned. "Is that what you meant when you said it happens more often than not?"

"Yeah." Grayson answered. "She's undefeated at five wins at the moment. Her Charmander is getting really strong!"

Ash just mumbled, "Lucky."

Leaf piped up, "We're actually undefeated at the moment as well. Ash already has a gym badge."

"Really?!" Grayson's interest peaked. "Let me see."

Ash nodded and open the side of his jacket and showed off his boulder badge. Grayson gazed at it with awe. Brock mentioned, "He actually won that from me. It was a great battle!"

"I'll bet. If you have the boulder badge, then you're next challenge has to be the Cerulean gym, where the Cascade badge is given. Meaning he'll be challenging you Misty." He finished as he turned to the red-head.

By that time, her mallet had vanished and spoke up for only the second time. "He'll be in for a fight. I won't be letting this go _That_ easily." She said as she pulled out a Cascade badge from her fanny-pack.

Grayson marveled at that badge as well, "If I weren't already training to become a breeder, I would definitely do the Pokémon league challenge. These things are beautiful."

Brock's closed eyes lit up, "Did you say you were working on becoming a breeder?"

"Yeah why?"

"I'm actually working towards that goal myself, perhaps we could exchange some info some time. You seem very knowledgeable."

"This nerd knows more than he lets on." Katrina said from behind Leaf.

Grayson had a vein pop out from his head. "Stop calling me a nerd! You know I don't like being called that!"

Katrina just rolled her eyes and shook her head.

Ash tried to move things along a bit, "Anyway, what are you doing here you two?"

Katrina actually spoke up this time. "We're actually heading to Lavender Town since NERD over here wants to read up on more knowledge about breeding and they have a breeding center there. But before that, we're heading to Cerulean so I can hopefully enter PWT next month."

That was the most amount of words Grayson had ever heard Katrina say in a single sequence, so he was surprised. Leaf noticed the error in her words, "I remember PWT going to Vermillion for July, why would you go to Cerulean."

"They hold tryouts in the same city where the last Pay-Per-View took place."

"Oh, good to know." Leaf made a mental note of that.

Misty raised the idea. "Hey, since you need to get through Mount Moon to get anywhere else in Kanto, why don't you join us? More company never hurt."

"I agree!" Grayson said. "You in Kat?"

She shrugged her shoulders and said, "Sure. Why not?"

"Awesome! Let's head out!" Ash declared. The group that now consisted of six trainers started walking towards Mount Moon.

The girls were up in front talking about various subjects, mostly just the basics of catching up and getting to know each other.

The boys trailed just behind them with Grayson talking too much for his own good about breeding with Brock and Ash just kind of fell out of the loop. Luckily, Ash had Cyndaquil by his side to keep him company.

Brock had discussed with the group about a meteor that supposedly once crashed into the mountain back in the prehistoric era. They called it the Moon Stone. Grayson was fascinated as he hadn't heard of this tale before. Misty thought it was romantic. Katrina was thinking that's where the mountain's name came from. Leaf wanted to know more, and Ash thought it was cool.

It was only about ten minutes before they were nearing the mountain when they heard a cry of help. Of course, they all heard and ran to where the sound was coming from. It was only about twenty feet from the path where they saw someone getting attacked by a bunch of Zubats. He looked to be a scientist of some sort, but they weren't exactly sure since there were about twelve Zubats surrounding him.

Ash was the only one with a Pokémon out at the time so he ordered quickly. "Cyndaquil, use Ember to get the Zubats off that man!"

Cyndaquil obeyed immediately and began spewing out hundreds of tiny embers towards the blue flying types. They began flying away before one got sucked into a Pokéball. It wiggled three times before settling down, signifying that it had been caught.

Five trainers looked to each other before looking at Ash who had a look of victory on his face. He said. "Yes! I've been looking for a good flying type!"

He would have to celebrate later though as the man was still down on the ground. Ash ran up to him and questioned, "Are you alright?"

He immediately jumped out and hugged Ash tight. "Wow! You guys are the greatest! Superfantabulistic!"

Ash struggled to breathe as he was being constricted in the man's arms. "That was the greatest rescue I've ever had! Myself being trapped, it was so bad!"

He finally let go of Ash and observed him and his Cyndaquil who was now on his shoulder. "I'm so moved! That kind of friendship I thought I'd never see, when the Zubat began attacking me! They say a Pokémon is man's best friend, and with you two, you follow that trend. I thought I was done for, when who should arrive? Two heroes thanks to whom I'm alive!"

He wasn't finished yet. "I'm ALLIIIIIIIIVE! THANK YOU SO MUCH! THANK YOU!" He had tears of joy in his eyes as he was looking in the opposite direction of the group while kneeling for whatever reason.

They all just raised an eyebrow as Misty said, "He certainly doesn't look like the poetic type." Katrina nodded with her.

He stood back up and looked at Ash. "Did I mention how grateful I am?"

Grayson answered. "Only about five times."

Leaf spoke up, "So why were those Zubat attacking you mister?"

He seemed a bit offended. "Never call me a mister! My name's Seymour. Seymour, the scientist! Knowledge, Research. I'm Seymour, the scientist!"

"You only said your name like three times. We get it, your name is Seymour. Now why were those Zubat attacking you?!" It was actually Grayson who once again spoke his mind out loud. His patience was running a bit thin.

"Okay, okay." Seymour felt pressured at his question. "I think it would be best if I showed you. Please follow me." He gestured for them to follow.

"I got a bad feeling about this." Grayson said.

Leaf suddenly got a feeling of...worry? Distrust? Fear? She couldn't exactly put her finger on the correct feeling, but she knew it wasn't good. She wondered why, but didn't question it further, but said, "You're not the only one." This is the second time she's had these strong feelings of something that might happen. The first time, nothing happened, she hoped this time was the same.

Seymour led them through the main entrance into the mountain and were confused at what they saw. It was just a simple item that expanded everywhere throughout the cave. Lightbulbs. Lightbulbs and wire anyway, and they were strung up as far as the eye could see.

"See? The entire cave is lit up." Seymour explained the obvious.

Grayson once again spoke up, "You know this reminds me Christmas time, only without all the pretty colors."

The six other individuals just looked at him with an awkward glance, it was certainly a weird analogy. They were all starting to get the idea that maybe he talks a little too much sometimes. Seymour shook his head and continued on. "The Pokémon that live in this cave need the dark. All these lights are making them confused."

"Well that explains why the Zubat left the cave and attacked you. You were just in their way. Wrong place at the wrong time." Brock mentioned.

Leaf explained her situation. "I've never seen a cave this bright. Then again, I never been in a cave, so this is new to me."

"I once was in a cave." Grayson said. "I tripped on a rock and fell in water that wasn't visible."

Katrina just about had it with his nonsensical rambling. "Grayson, shut up. You talk too much!"

Grayson came back with a fiery tone in his voice. "And you don't talk enough, so we're even!"

Misty was getting irritated at the orange-haired boy, "If you don't stop talking about things that don't matter to the situation at hand, you'll be having a little chat with my mallet!" She yelled at him as she once again, pulled out a mallet from seemingly nowhere. Where does she keep it?

Grayson remembered seeing the mallet so he just muttered. "I'll be quiet."

Brock just rolled his eyes while Ash found it a bit hysterical, but tried his best to hide it. Leaf just ignored them.

Seymour kept walking as he pointed out. "Look over there, Paras are planting their mushrooms everywhere, the hot lights are drying up these Sandshrew and the Zubat keep hitting the walls."

Ash questioned, "Then how do Zubat work with trainers in daylight?"

"Zubats are fine when natural sunlight is shining, plus they're used to it by the time they're caught. These are wild Zubat in their habitat, they haven't had the time to adjust to light." Brock showed his Pokémon knowledge with that statement.

Ash brought out a Pokéball. "Looks like I'll have to give my Zubat some time to adjust to things." He finished as he put it back on his belt.

Cyndaquil looked around in worry. It was warm in this cave, even he'll admit. Luckily, he was used to temperatures ten, fifteen and even twenty times what he was feeling now. But the Pokémon in this cave didn't and that worried him. He wished he could help somehow.

Seymour spoke again. "That's why I'm here, to patrol and protect this mountain from the troublemakers' attack against these caves."

Misty wanted some more info. "Troublemakers? Why attack a cave?"

Seymour looked worried at that. "It's all because of the Moon Stone."

Grayson spoke up once again, only this time, adding to the conversation. "Moon stones are usually to evolve certain Pokémon, like Nidoking and Nidoqueen. But I've also read that they can power-up Pokémon. It doesn't have good long-term effects though, as those Pokémon actually become _weaker_ overtime. A short-term gain, long-term loss if you will. Only certain Pokémon for unknown reasons can handle that power, hence why they evolve."

"Is that true?" Ash questioned. "I've never heard of that theory."

Brock piped up. "I've heard about that as well. Selfish trainers give Moon stones to Pokémon that don't evolve by said Moon stones, hence why some are more powered than normal. But after a while, it brings wear and tear on their organs since it's not natural. It's not a very well known strategy, but one that is so easily exploited when discovered."

"That's so terrible." Leaf voiced. "Pokémon aren't meant to only be tools for battle. They're our friends and shouldn't be treated as anything else."

"I agree, but that's just how things are with some people." The former Pewter gym leader shook his head. "It's sick."

"So where exactly did the Moon Stone come from?" Leaf questioned the scientist.

"What you should be asking is where did the Pokémon come from." Seymour chimed.

"Where the Pokémon came from?"

"Yes. Ever since I was a little boy, I've believed the first Pokémon that ever existed came from outer space."

"From outer space?" The entire group questioned.

Seymour nodded. "Yes. And the Spacecraft that brought them to Earth lays right here inside of this mountain. It's the Moon Stone!"

"Well, that sure is an original theory." Misty said.

Before Seymour could say any further, Grayson spoke up. "So, if what you're thinking is true and the Moon Stone is in this mountain..." He stopped.

"Then the attackers are somewhere in here with us at this very moment." Katrina finished with a bit of panic in her voice.

That bad feeling Leaf had earlier only skyrocketed when that conclusion was made. If attackers are inside of this mountain, then who knows what the results may be.

"We must be vigilant." Seymour started. "These lights have been up for as far as I know, about 24 hours. Mount Moon is a gigantic place. There's no telling where they could be, so it might be best to pick up the pace."

"Hold on." Ash stopped him. "There's no picking up _any_ pace if we don't have a plan. We don't know who's here, we don't know how to stop them and we **sure** don't know where the Moon Stone is, assuming it's even exists."

"Ash has a point." Brock said. "But I believe the Moon Stone exists. If it didn't, all these lights wouldn't be strung up everywhere. Whatever their plan is took a lot of time to figure out and they wouldn't be searching this place for a theory without SOME sort of concrete evidence. "

"Well, I certainly don't want us splitting up." Leaf voiced her worries. "If one or two of us get cornered by these thieves, there's no telling what they'll do to our Pokémon. I'd feel a lot safer if we traveled in a group."

The entire group of kids agreed. Strength in numbers was the biggest advantage they had on their side, splitting off would be a terrible idea.

They suddenly heard a scream coming from one of the tunnels in front of them and before any of them could do anything, a small pink Pokémon came jumping out of the path coming from the right with a look of terror on its face. It's eyes seemed to be closed as it was just running and jumping all over the place before running into solid rock not too far from the group.

Leaf pointed her X2 at it. " ** _Clefairy, the Fairy Pokémon. And the evolved form of Cleffa. On nights with a full moon, Clefairy gather and dance together. The surrounding area is enveloped in an abnormal magnetic field."_**

When the identified Clefairy gathered its surroundings, it saw the group of trainers and scientist and began cowering in fear. They saw that it had a look of pure terror on its face. Like anything that they did was the worst fear of this Clefairy.

Leaf swear she could hear her heart crack a bit when she saw how scared this Clefairy was and she had to do something to assure that they weren't dangerous. She told the group. "I'm gonna calm this Clefairy down, just stay back and let me handle this."

Seymour was about to offer his advice, but Ash shot him down. He just shook his head and silently told him to watch.

Leaf cautiously and slowly started walking to the terrified Fairy Pokémon. It seemed as though every step Leaf took towards it, it just got more frightened and more petrified. She was careful not to make any sudden movements so she wouldn't scare the Pokémon more than it already was.

She eventually got a few feet in front of the Pokémon before crouching down and extending her hand. She spoke in a soft voice. "Hey, it's okay. We're not anyone bad alright? We're not gonna hurt you, I promise. Please, calm down."

She made sure she didn't make contact with the Clefairy without its consent and flashed it a small smile to show that she was sincere. The Clefairy was still scared out of its wits, but when it saw those loving eyes this human had and when it saw no malicious intent, it slowly, but steadily moved closer to her hand.

The Clefairy had expected the worst when it had done that, but Leaf did nothing to harm the Pokémon, her soul was too honest and pure for that. She then held out both hands to ask for permission if she could hold it. The fairy Pokémon was very hesitant at first, but once again, looked into this girl's eyes and saw nothing but love and compassion so it reluctantly gave in.

She carefully picked up the Clefairy and brought it into her lap and just slowly started rubbing its head and whispered sweet nothings into its ear, letting it know that it was alright and that nothing was going to happen to it now. The more she did this, the more the Pink fairy calmed down and the more trust it had in the human holding its form.

All of the group behind her just stood in silence and watched the scene unfold and it was very touching to say the least. This reminded Ash of a memory that he had a few years prior, with Leaf doing something similar to a different Pokémon. He knew Leaf was very good with calming Pokémon down and was on the same level, if not past Ash in experience with Pokémon. She just loved these creatures that much. Growing up with them all around her also helped.

The others were astonished at what had just transpired that they almost couldn't believe it. Brock and Misty had never seen anything like this, they had never seen this level of love and sincerity one had for a Pokémon like Leaf had just shown, to a wild Pokémon no less. Seymour looked as though he was about to burst like a balloon with how big his smile was.

Leaf just continued to be gentle with the Pokémon before it completely calmed down enough to show its appreciation by nuzzling its head onto her hand. She was thankful to calm this Pokémon down and find out why it was petrified of all things.

"Feeling all better now?" She whispered into its ear.

Clefairy chirped its name and nodded.

She continued on. "Good. Now why were you so scared? Did something bad happen?"

It remembered what had happened and ducked its head into Leaf's torso, hoping to shield itself from whatever horrors it must have just faced. She looked to the group with sad eyes and they all showed the same. Usually Clefairy were jolly and cheerful in nature, but this one had all of its best traits ripped away and seemed to show a shallow shell of its former self.

* * *

The group now found itself back outside the mountain at a Pokémon center about ten minutes from Mount Moon wondering what they could do. Seymour decided he would stay in the mountain to continue his patrols.

Leaf actually segregated herself from the group as she didn't feel Clefairy was comfortable enough yet to be around so many people at once so she sat a bit away from the others. She was still in eyesight and they could see she was just caressing the pink fairy and occasionally would whisper something that was inaudible to their ears.

They rest of them were sitting at a table when, "Man, this stinks." Grayson complained. "I know that Clefairy are usually tough if they need to be, but to have one completely petrified is a new one on me." He folded his arms, hoping something from his brain would connect.

"It makes me wonder if it had a traumatic experience." Brock commented. "The Pokémon in the mountain just looked worn out, but that face was a face no Pokémon should ever have."

Ash looked over to his best friend and to the Clefairy. He was worried, he knew Leaf would do her best, but wondered if it could be enough. He had complete faith in her, but that look is something that he doesn't think will ever truly escape his head.

He questioned the group. "So what do we do?"

"I think we need to call in Officer Jenny to help out. This certainly isn't a one-man job." Misty threw her idea out.

"Officer Jenny?!" Brock spoke up with hearts in his eyes.

"Yeah, you alright?"

"Officer Jenny is the epitome of beauty! Her gorgeous eyes are unmatched and her toughness on duty is second to none! Plus there are so many Jenny's!" Brock was in complete fantasy land now.

Misty knocked his head in with her fist. "Now's not the time to be daydreaming you moron! We need a plan to get rid of the monsters inside Mount Moon!"

Brock just rubbed the back of his head and said, "Sorry, it's a habit of mine. But I do agree and not just because of my crush on her." Misty rolled her eyes.

"Something tells me we'll need more than just Officer Jenny." Katrina added in, though her voice had a bit of uneasiness to it.

Ash questioned. "What do you mean?"

"If there are more than even three people in there, then Jenny will have a difficult time handling them. She's going to need some help."

Grayson nodded. "I would have thought she would have gotten a report by now, but it doesn't seem like it."

"I'll call Officer Jenny." Ash declared.

One nifty feature on the X2 was the ability to call the nearest Jenny to report any crimes or just for a question about something lawful. Of course, if a prank call was made, the caller usually got arrested. It was best not to mess with Jenny.

He rang for Jenny for a moment before a figure with dark teal hair in a blue police uniform appeared. "This is Officer Jenny. Do you have an incident to report?"

"Yeah." Ash began. "My friends and I were in Mount Moon earlier with this scientist named Seymour. The entire place was lit up like a beacon and was disturbing the Pokémon. We know there's trouble."

The officer in question was writing all of what he said down onto a notepad and questioned. "You said you know there's trouble in there. Could you provide insight as to what that trouble is?"

Ash sighed. "We don't know exactly unfortunately. We found a Clefairy absolutely terrified and it took a lot to calm it down and even now, my best friend is still trying to keep it at ease. We've connected the dots of the Moon Stone theory, with the lights strung up everywhere in those caves, to the terrified Pokémon. There's definitely some troublemakers inside there at this moment. We also have reason to believe it's larger than a one-man operation."

The Jenny he was talking to nodded. "We'll get investigators and officers over there right away. Thank you for providing this information. May I get your name please?"

"Ash Ketchum."

"Thank you Ash. Is there anything else?"

"That's all ma'am. Thank you."

That's when the call ended. Ash looked up and saw Brock still with hearts in his eyes just staring off into space at nothing in particular. His mouth was also wide-open. Misty saw this and yanked his ear to get him out of his trance. It worked. She didn't say another word.

By this time, Leaf had walked over to the group with a sleeping Clefairy in her arms. She said softly, "I managed to get it to sleep, but I don't know if it'll have another panic attack. I heard the call by the way, I think that was for the best."

"It's better than dealing with it on our own." Brock spoke his mind. "Jenny and the other officers are trained for this kind of thing. They're the Dragonites and we're the Pidgeys when it comes to something like that."

Grayson wanted to know something. "Well is their any way to get through Mount Moon without actually going **Through** it? I'm not familiar with the area unfortunately."

Ash checked his X2 roadmap and saw there was one path all the way to the right of the mountain that pretty much went through the maze on a clean and narrow path all the way through. "There's a tunnel about a mile to the right of the path that's pretty straight. It beats going through that maze. That's probably our best way to avoid the work of the officers and the attention of the thieves."

"I think it's best we head there in the morning. Look." Brock pointed out of the nearest window. "It's already dark and I know we're all tired after the events that transpired today."

"What about Clefairy?" Katrina questioned.

Leaf looked down to the fairy in her arms and thought for a moment before she spoke. "I wonder if she would let herself join me."

"She?" Ash questioned.

Leaf nodded. "She. It was pretty obvious that something terrorized her inside that mountain. I know if I was Clefairy, I'd want to get away as soon as possible."

"That's something for Clefairy to decide." Ash said.

Leaf just nodded. She decided she was gonna let the Clefairy sleep with her for the night since she seemed most comfortable with the brunette.

They had decided to get two rooms and split each off with boys in one room, girls in the other since there was an even three each. Ash had to inform his mother that Leaf wasn't going to call _her_ mother that night and explained why. She gave her sympathies towards the Clefairy, but knew Leaf was the one to help get her back to normal.

After that was taken care of, everyone had decided to retire for the night to get an early start that next morning. Five trainers were asleep by the time 22:30 hit, but one was still awake. It was pretty obvious which was that one.

Leaf had let the Clefairy stay in the same bed as her and just watched on as she slept. She noticed it had a steady heartbeat, meaning it wasn't in distress like it was about five hours ago. Leaf could only imagine what she went through that day and promised herself that she would never let that happen to the Clefairy again. No being, deserved to be petrified like she had been earlier.

Leaf eventually went to sleep that night, but it wasn't easy.

 ** _June 16th, 2006_**

If you were lucky, getting through Mount Moon the normal way would take many hours as there are numerous paths one can take to get through. It was a maze if you didn't know where you were going and there are even tales of a couple trainers losing their lives in there because they couldn't find their way out and ran out of supplies. Of course, these are just rumors and tall tales, but there is always that possibility that it could be true.

The group didn't necessarily have to worry about that though as they weren't even heading through the main entrance.

All six trainers had already decided to get an early start and they were out of the Pokémon center by 8:00. Ash's Elekid and Leaf's Sentret were out at this time with Leaf steadily holding onto the Clefairy she had calmed down the day prior. It was still wary of the group, but it warmed up right quick to the brunette and she told her that they were trustworthy and that they weren't going to hurt her. That's part of the reason those two Pokémon are out right now, to give the fairy Pokémon some leisure in seeing friendly faces.

They had trekked through the side path that was about a mile in length as they were slowly approaching the shortcut that led them all the way through Mount Moon. Ash had his X2 on for GPS and they were now standing right in front of it.

"Well I'll be. There is another tunnel over here." Grayson said.

"I told you." Ash commented. "It should just be an hour or two walk through and we'll be at the other side that'll lead back to the main path."

"Are you sure?" Brock questioned.

"Yeah, judging by distance, it's just under three miles."

"Let's get going then." Misty declared.

No other comments were said as they all began walking into the mountain. The girls led up front once again while the boys trailed just behind them. What surprised them though was that the lights were over here as well. Mount Moon was a gigantic place, so the amount of time it took to put all these up made them wonder if they went through the **entire** mountain.

The atmosphere around them was relatively calm for the most part considering none of the Pokémon that made this cave their habitat were really around. Apart from that, there wasn't anything interesting to look at other than the occasional side-path that would lead off to somewhere else. It was all rock everywhere around.

Brock had decided to bring out his Geodude as it really liked rocks for obvious reasons. It didn't do anything extraordinary, just floated alongside Brock and that was it.

Grayson would periodically list off random facts about various things, like whenever they _Did_ happen to see a Pokémon or just the architecture around the cave, he just couldn't get enough of showing off what he knew. Of course, Katrina threatened to smack him in the head if he continued after a certain point so once again, he said, "I'll be quiet," and wasn't heard from much since.

Leaf was still carrying the Clefairy she had found yesterday and it looked as though she was still on edge. She noticed the fairy's eyes constantly looking around, as though she was being hunted by a scary Pokémon. Her body language as well said a whole lot. Clefairy didn't try to scramble out of Leaf's arms, if anything, she tried to sink deeper into them. The brunette just watched her with sad eyes.

It was about 30 minutes in when a noise was heard through one of the walls. Oddly enough, only Leaf was able to hear it and had to stop the entire group to get them to listen around for it. They eventually heard that sound again and it almost sounded like a cry of some kind. They had heard another sound and this one sounded more human and they were instantly on high alert.

They had silently agreed to start looking around for any sort of clues as to where that sound emanated from because there was no general direction as to where it came from. It echoed throughout the cave quietly, but they were able to hear it since they were still as could be. Misty had discovered a small side-path about 20 feet from where they initially heard the sound, but nothing was found down there other than a dead-end. She hit a wall in frustration.

It was another five minutes before something knocked Ash off his feet. When he turned, he saw a regular ol' Sandshrew looking frightened, like it had just seen a ghost.

Ash wanted to know more so he asked, "Hey Elekid. Can you get tell us why this Sandshrew looks scared?"

The electric Pokémon nodded and began conversing with the ground type. It was about 25 seconds later when Elekid's eyes dilated and his pupils contracted. He looked like he had just heard the worst news possible.

Elekid turned to the group and began doing some charades to try and get them to understand the situation at hand. He started with what looked to be some circles with his hands while tightening something.

Ash questioned it, "It's saying...tug?"

Elekid face-palmed and denied that right quick and slowed his hand movements down to let them get a better understanding. "A Christmas bow?" Grayson wondered.

The electric type showed that he was on the right track and began detailing it a bit more before Brock understood, "Tie up maybe?"

The yellow Pokémon gave a thumbs-up and moved onto his next motion which was figured out almost immediately. He zipped his lips, locked it and threw away the key. "Zip it, lock and throw it away." Leaf said.

Two thumbs-up were given this time. Elekid then requested the help of Sentret who was the other Pokémon present and began a mock scene with it. He sat her down gently, put her arms behind her back and did the zip, lock and throw motion and pointed to the Shiny Pokémon.

At that, all twelve eye widened as they immediately understood the situation. There were hostages close by that were tied-up and gagged and needed help as soon as possible.

"Okay, so we have that. Can you show us where they are?" Misty asked the ground type.

The Sandshrew nodded its head vigorously and began leading them down the path a bit before coming up on another side-path. The ground-mouse walked up to a wall that led to a dead-end. They were about to convey their annoyance at that when Elekid **pushed** the wall in that led to a secret path.

"It's a secret passage." Brock marveled at the newly discovered hidden area.

Grayson voiced a surprisingly logical observation. "It kinda makes me wonder if all those other dead-ends had these."

"Knowing this mountain, probably." Brock answered.

It was then Leaf said in a hushed manner, "We need to go in quietly. No telling who's in here."

Nobody else said anything, but silently agreed and began to move on. The boys took the lead this time to stop anything from coming out to attack. Sandshrew was actually leading the pack through a couple more twists and turns that never seemed to end with this cave.

Clefairy was getting a bit scared, but Leaf shushed her and told her things would be alright in the end. The pink fairy looked up and once again saw those eyes of honesty and sincerity and believed her, but that didn't mean she wasn't wary of the situation.

Ash was ready for just about anything at this point, an ambush, a battle, a hasty escape, any possible scenario that he could think of and they were adding up by the minute. He wasn't taking this lightly at all, especially with hostages involved. He knew he'd have to be ready to fight if he had to. He had Elekid out and Cyndaquil at the ready in case things went South.

After a couple minutes, they group crept their way past one final corridor because entering a **Large** room. This room actually looked naturally made as there were pillars of stone here and there that seemed to hold up the ceiling, though that wasn't the only thing this room consisted of.

When the group spotted what else this room had, they quickly ducked behind a wall, surprisingly, not alerting anyone. Who are these anyones you may ask? Well, this room had at least fifteen people inside of it and all of them were wearing very similar black outfits. The men had slacks and the women had skirts, but all wore the same top with the same insignia.

This insignia, was a giant red R.

A giant red R could only mean one thing.

Team Rocket.

Team Rocket was here and they were in many numbers. However, they weren't the only beings in the room as there were a couple more sitting in a dark corner towards the far end of the room. Their hands looked to be tied behind their backs, and they had been clearly gagged.

The Clefairy in Leaf's arms started shivering a bit and had of look of fear in her eyes and Leaf began to understand what had happened to the pink fairy. The Clefairy had a run-in with Team Rocket, they did something to her and she had barely escaped with her life. What they did to her, Leaf wouldn't know, but something bad most certainly.

The group's eyes widened when they saw who was over there. They saw a couple familiar faces, one was wearing a white lab coat and had big glasses adorning his face, the other was in a blue police uniform and her hair was a dark teal color.

There were a few more officers sitting there and even a couple trainers, whom they didn't recognize. There was one in particular though that seemed to stand out among everyone else though. This person had crimson-red hair, almost the color of blood. He had pale skin and eyes that looked as cold as steel, dark crimson in color. His attire consisted of a navy-blue high-collared coat with a red trim around the wrists, zipper and a pocket that adorned his upper chest. He wore dark-violet colored pants and had shoes that were the exact same as his coat. He seemed to be around thirteen, maybe fourteen years of age.

Going back to his eyes though, that's what stood out the most, they were an unnatural hue of red, which was the exact same as his hair and they were colder than ice as he stared up at the man in front of him.

Most of the grunts had a look that resembled very close similarities to each other, but this guy was different. He bore a cocky smirk and his hair was a light purple color which was buzzed at the sides of his head and had a long curl on top. He wore a black Team Rocket uniform and his eyes didn't look all too lively as they looked to be halfway closed, but solely focused on the person that was sitting in front of him.

"Hahahaha!" The unique Rocket laughed. "It's so funny how you think you can beat us with your hands tied!"

The red-haired trainer snarled at the man, "You pathetic imbecile. You only have me in these binds because you and **EVERYBODY** here knows I would rip out your kneecaps and use them as hockey pucks!"

"And what would be your hockey stick?" The Rocket executive went along with it.

"Your left leg!" He spat. "Now untie me this instant so I can beat your ass!"

He seemed to think about it for a moment. "Hmm. Tempting, but no Silver. We don't need you interrupting our plans."

The now-named Silver snarled again and tugged at his restraints with no such luck. "Petrel, I will kill you and everybody associated with this organization one day. Nice and slow too so you can remember how it felt when I played baseball with your elbow!"

"You're a feisty one." To get the red-haired trainer even more enraged, he flicked his nose. Needless to say, it worked. Silver growled intensely at that. He looks **pissed** , like anything done to him would end in spontaneous combustion for the entire mountain.

Ash, Leaf, Brock, Misty, Grayson and Katrina all watched on at the rage this person was emanating. He looked as though he was ready to annihilate anything that was in a fifty mile radius. They all made a mental note to NEVER get on the bad side of this Silver guy.

"GRUNTS!" Petrel shouted out. "How's the progress coming along huh?! The sooner we're done with this place, the sooner we can blow it to smithereens."

"Sir!" One of the grunts called out. "We've excavated dozens of Pokémon from this mountain, all of which are ready for transport. They didn't put up much a fight luckily, that light idea of yours was genius."

"Excellent work." He commended. "You there! How's the liberation from the trainer's Pokémon coming along?" He pointed to another grunt.

"Sir! We've managed to gather quite a number of them and have the victims over in that corner so they wouldn't report anything in. We're super good to go!"

He looked and saw the hostages which consisted of about ten or so people, give or take. "Good work, they won't see the light of day tomorrow. You there! How's the fossil hunt coming along?" He pointed to another pair of grunts that had pickaxes and hardhats. Only these grunts had a white Team Rocket uniform instead of black. And they were clearly noticeably different than the rest, as one had extremely long magenta hair that curled perfectly. The other had lavender colored hair that looked a bit messy all things considering. Not Ash-type messy hair, but hair that looked like it could be groomed. And they also had a Meowth with them.

"Sir! It's unfortunate to report that there have been no fossils discovered." The lady reported.

Petrel shook his head. "Jessie, James, Meowth. We talked about this. All you three had to do was just find a few fossils and you would have gotten back into the good graces of the boss. And you can't even do that. I'm disappointed in you three."

"Hold on!" The one who voiced was the Meowth! The group thought they were hallucinating when they heard it speak, but it kept going. "Yous tellin us dat _we're_ disappointments, but yous coulda sent someone else to do all da work. What kinda false hope you leadin' us to?" This Meowth was a chatterbox, that's for sure, and he had a strange accent that seemed to mess up some words.

Petrel wasn't fazed by this, "There are fossils inside of this mountain, you just have to look for them. I'll give you another chance, but if you don't come up with anything, there will be repercussions. Undersood?"

James nodded immediately, "Understood. We'll get to work." He said as he began digging some more. The others following suit.

The group was currently behind their wall when they tried to come up with a plan. They were clearly outmatched, but these grunts didn't seem like they had much. They needed to free those people without anyone getting hurt, but this was going to be extremely difficult.

"What do we do?" Leaf asked in the quietest manner possible.

Ash whispered back, "We need to let those hostages know we're here and to keep quiet. Jenny is over there and if we can get her released, she could probably handle the rest with the other officers."

All of a sudden. "Hey. Did you hear something."

Uh oh.

"It's probably just another Pokémon. I wouldn't worry about it, the executive said we had enough anyway."

"Well, I'm gonna check it out anyway, could be something rare."

They began hearing footsteps and they had to think fast. They only had a few seconds before they would be spotted and the whole operation would have been blown before it even started.

Suddenly, Ash had an idea. Gesturing everyone back, he got into an offensive stance, almost looking like he was going to knock him out. As the grunt turned the corner, Ash kicked the back of his leg in and before he could scream out in pain, Ash used his left hand to cover the grunt's mouth.

When the Rocket grunt realized what had just happened, he began fighting back, but it was all too late. Ash had brought the grunt down to the ground and got all four locks in place for a rear-naked choke hold. Once the legs were wrapped and the arms were locked, it was impossible to escape. All four locks were applied, cutting the recipient's oxygen from his brain. The grunt was knocked out within seconds. It was a slightly modified one as he had to keep the grunt's mouth shut, but it worked nonetheless.

Ash then dragged him out of the room behind them, but not without tying him up with some zip-tie he kept on his person. He whispered to the group, "He won't be waking up anytime soon." Those years of training with the fighting type Pokémon came in real handy there.

Each person had mixed opinions at what just transpired, but mostly just relief that they didn't have to deal with that grunt anymore. That was one grunt down, now they only had about fourteen more to go.

"What do we do?" Katrina asked in the quietest voice possible.

"Grayson." Ash whispered. "You can be loud right?"

"Yeah. Why?" The breeder asked.

"Alright, I got a plan, but it involves you making a loud distraction. Think you can do that?"

He grinned at that. "You bet, just let me know when."

Ash nodded and turned towards the rest of the group. "Alright, here's the plan."

After doing a little recon, the plan was all laid out. Everybody had their part and they were gonna do their best to bring this operation down. Grayson looked out from the wall to see if there were any openings that he could run to. He noticed another wall, not too far from where they were that provided some good cover, so he began making his move. Luckily for him, there were no guards looking in his general direction. He had almost tripped on some soda cans that were just tossed aside by a couple of Rockets, but he managed to find his balance.

Grayson then looked out and gestured for Ash and the gang to head out from their position to some boxes that were stacked. These were fairly large crates and since they were stacked up about three or four boxes high, they provided easy cover for the group. Brock did his part and looked out for any Rocket members and noticed two were still standing near the hostages. They were hoping they wouldn't have to resort to this, but it had to be done to get them away from it.

Brock nodded to Ash, which then Ash nodded to Grayson. It was time. "OW! My foot!"

That raised the heads of every Rocket in the room as they turned their attention to where that voice was coming from. Of course, you knew who it was, but they sure didn't. He then began limping from his spot behind the wall, pretending that his foot was in pain. "Ahh! Who put a boulder there?"

"It's a kid! Subdue him!" One of the grunts yelled and All of the grunts went charging for him. They were oddly in a straight line, which was really weird. But Grayson sure hoped his next trick would work. He put both hands out in front of him and shouted "WAIT!"

The first grunt in the line stopped, which then the grunt behind him ran into his back, and then the grunt behind **Him** ran into **His** back. And then another, and then another, and then another until all of the grunts were sandwiched together and were now _grunting_ for lack of a better word. They seemed to be in a bit of pain and they all tipped over like dominos.

Grayson hadn't expected that to happen, but kept at it nonetheless. "Before you guys tie me up, I just have one question." They all looked at him with curiosity. "Who wants to see a magic trick?!"

They all stared at the young boy for a moment before they all broke out, "I DO!" "MAGIC? COOL!" "I WANNA SEE!" "I LOVE MAGIC TRICKS!" In the back behind the boxes, Misty and Katrina just face-palmed at the idiocy and the sheer folly the Rocket grunts were showing at this very moment.

Grayson then brought out a deck of cards from somewhere and held out the deck, "Pick a card, pick a card. Any card. Anybody wanna pick a card?" He honestly could not believe that this was actually working, but ran with it!

Back behind them, the Rocket executive was fuming and shouted out, "YOU MORONS! GET BACK TO WORK AND TIE THIS KID UP!"

The grunts however, did not seem to be listening and were too invested in what this kid was going to show them.

All eyes from behind the boxes just blinked in absolute confusion, but weren't about to question it. They had their role to do. Brock looked out and noticed that the grunts who were watching the hostages were too busy in the magic trick that Grayson was showing right now. "Let's go." But before they could actually move, Misty heard what sounded like cries coming from inside one of the crates beside them and stopped the group. Since she was the closest, she put her left ear to the crate and tried to listen for what was inside.

Sure enough, there were cries of help coming from inside of those crates and she felt disgusted. She remembered hearing that some Pokémon were "Ready for transport," this must have been what they were referring to. The other four currently in the party all listened in as well and confirmed that there were Pokémon in these crates. Now they had another dilemma on their hands.

Misty thought up of a new plan and whispered, "Alright if you don't mind Ash, I'm changing the plan a bit. We need to free these Pokémon and untie those people over there. Brock, pry these open with something. Katrina, you'll be untying them. Ash, Leaf and I will watch your back. Is that fair?"

"Uhh, I don't know." Katrina whispered back with a look of uncertainty on her face.

Leaf put a hand on her shoulder, "Hey, I know you can do this. You're strong, you just don't realize it yet. All you have to do is untie them and then we'll do the rest. Simple right?"

She shrugged, still doubting herself that she'd make it over there quiet enough. "Look, even if you're unsure, people's lives are at risk. You want to take the chance that they'll be saved without us?"

Katrina shook her head vigorously, she'd never put others at risk like that. "Then go help them. Like Misty said, we'll have your back. Nothing will happen to you, you just need to trust us alright?"

Katrina had never heard such salient words directed towards her before, but she knew how pivotal her actions were. She just had to shake off her people-jitters and go untie them. "Alright. I can do this."

"Good. I know you can." Leaf gave a smile towards her friend and nodded.

They then heard a loud, "WOW!" as they were finishing up their new impromptu plan. They had assumed that Grayson did something to make them impressed and they were now asking for more. Extra time for them, so he was doing something right.

Brock looked around for a minute and actually saw a crowbar about ten feet away so he quickly grabbed that before being seen. He wondered why there was a crowbar there, but didn't question it. It was time for a Katrina to make her move. As the three lookouts scanned the area, they noticed only one person not near Grayson at that moment and he was the guy talking to Silver earlier, but he still had his sights turned to the grunts. Leaf told her to go and that's when she started creeping her way towards the tied-up group of people.

Seymour, Jenny and Silver all noticed her coming along and she silently told them to be quiet by putting a finger to her lips. The captives were about fifty feet from where those crates were, so it was a decent distance. Katrina was about halfway there, when she started to build some confidence in herself. As long as no one turned around, she could do this. At the same time, Brock began silently prying open a crate with his crowbar, but wasn't having much luck at the moment.

 _'I can do this. I can do this. Can't be shy now.'_ Was what she kept repeating in her head. She was about ten feet away now when she suddenly lost her balance and tripped onto the hard rock below her.

Petrel heard the noise and immediately turned to notice a girl on the ground near the hostages and shouted out, "HEY! THEY'RE TRYING TO FREE THE HOSTAGES!" **(1)**

All eyes on the good side widened as they knew their plan was blown to smithereens now. The opposing side's grunts all turned their heads towards that corner and noticed her as well. All but abandoning the show that Grayson was putting on for them, they started grabbing their Pokéballs and launching them out.

"Change of plans!" Ash called out. "Looks like we have to battle them! Cyndaquil, Elekid, Kaz, I CHOOSE YOU!"

"Shinx, Sentret, Gaige, YOU'RE UP!"

"Geodude, Onix, Rhyhorn, GO!"

"Misty calls Starmie, Staryu and Shellder!"

Grayson ran over to his side and called out. "Bulbasaur, Pidgeotto and Mankey, GIVE ME YOUR AID!"

Team Rocket's Pokémon consisted of many Ekans, Zubat, Koffing, Rattata and a single Raticate. From that point on, it was an all-out war between two sides fighting to dominance. It was about a 15-on-40 Pokémon fight, they knew this wasn't going to be easy, but there was no other option.

After releasing her Pokémon, Leaf told the Clefairy she was holding to stay behind those crates and to not come out no matter what happens. She then ran in for a war.

Ash's Cyndaquil began laying waste to three Rattata before Elekid came barging in with a few Low Kicks to knock them out. The lone Raticate retaliated against them though and bit down on Cyndaquil with a Hyper Fang and slammed its body into Elekid with a Pursuit attack. They weren't giving up though and went back in for revenge.

Brock's rock type Pokémon were taking out anything that was flying around with various Rock Throws and Rollouts. Though, a couple of the Ekans dug their way underground and were hitting Geodude and Rhyhorn hard with the move Dig. All of the rock types were taking quite a bit of damage before Kaz the Rockruff came in with a Thunder Fang to completely take out the various Ekans, they appeared to have not been very strong, so Kaz actually got some wins in the heat of battle.

Misty was doing a good job holding down the Zubat as well as there were many, MANY Zubat. Bubblebeam after Bubblebeam and Rapid Spin after Rapid Spin were being called out from her Pokémon and they were doing a good job before a massive Thunderbolt completely wiped out her Starmie. She looked where that came from and saw the purple-haired Team Rocket executive out with a Magneton with a smirk adorning his face. He winked at her before another thunderbolt came flying out from the three-sided magnet, hitting Grayson's Pidgeotto and knocking it down for the count.

Grayson was mad about that and sent Mankey flying over with a Karate Chop and it was super effective against the steel Pokémon. It wasn't down for the count, but it didn't look one-hundred percent anymore. All of a sudden, an Ice Fang came roaring in from Leaf's Shinx and froze his Magneton completely, from that point on, it was out-cold. She noticed a massive Sludge attack coming from a couple of the Koffing and ordered Gaige, her Fomantis, to use Protect to block herself and the group of hostages that it was aimed for. It worked like a charm and then she ordered her to use Razor Leaf on anything that was in front of her, which was a couple Ekans and Rattata that were still able to fight.

The Raticate that Ash was focused on wasn't giving an inch and had really winded his Pokémon that were on him. Ash ordered an Ember from Cyndaquil and he got a lucky burn on the Raticate, he then ordered Elekid to use Low Kick and that luckily knocked the Raticate out after another burn took effect. He then went after some of the Koffing.

Grayson wasn't doing so hot as his Pidgeotto was already unconscious from Magneton's Thunderbolt and his Bulbasaur wasn't fairing too well because of the type disadvantage he was up against, which was practically everything on the opposing team. His Bulbasaur finished off some Rattata, but that was about it.

Leaf's Sentret was punching the living daylights out of everything that came anywhere near her and was only getting more powerful every hit she struck as she was using Power-Up-Punch. By this point, anything that she hit was left unconscious. That's when Leaf noticed an Ice Beam get a direct hit on her Shinx and he was out light like a light. Her eyes widened and looked where that came from before spotting Petrel once again with a Sneasel that looked ready for a fight.

Ash had saw this as well and ran up side-by-side with his best friend when he then directed to his two other Pokémon. "Elekid, Kaz! Keep them off of us!" He then turned to Leaf. "What do you say we take him on together?" **(2)**

Leaf grinned at that and spoke out. "Let's do it. Gaige, help Elekid and Kaz!" She ordered her grass-type who complied and stood alongside Ash's Pokémon. They then turned to the Rocket executive in front of them.

He just laughed. "You honestly think you can take on my Sneasel? Hahaha! You're wasting your time!" He was hunching over a bit in hysteria at the thought that they could actually win.

Ash just muttered. "We'll see who'll be laughing when all is said and done." Leaf had just barely caught that, but agreed with him on that.

Cyndaquil was now standing in front of Ash, while Sentret stood in front of Leaf. All four beings side-by-side with each other, ready for battle.

Petrel wasn't going to wait any longer and grunted. "Sneasel, use Ice Beam!"

Ash countered. "Cyndaquil, use Ember to counter that!"

Both Pokémon spewed out their respective attack and they collided right in the middle of the battlefield. The Ice Beam had more impact in sheer power alone, but because Ember was a fire attack, it ended in a no contest.

"Sentret, use Amnesia on both yourself and Cyndaquil!" She commanded her Shiny Pokémon. Sentret put her hands together and seemed to concentrate on something deep inside of her mind before a light appeared around both of them that traveled upwards, signaling a Special Defense raise.

"A silly move like that won't work against my Sneasel! Use Metal Claw!"

With great Agility, Sneasel sprinted forward and connected both of his claws into the duo's Pokémon. Though because only one claw hit them, they only took half of the usual damage. Metal Claw is typically used with both claws to maximize the damage, but wasn't done so here.

"Cyndaquil! Counter with Flame Wheel!"

The fire mouse began spinning faster than a car wheel traveling 60 miles per hour and sped his way over to the ice type. Unfortunately, the Sharp-Claw Pokémon sidestepped and the fire type missed. When Cyndaquil circled back around it was met with a punch right to the face courtesy of the ice type. It had just used Rock Smash.

Petrel grinned at his Pokémon's wherewithal in that situation. Cyndaquil wasn't doing so well, it may have only taken two hits from the ice type, but the earlier battles and damage it took was starting to take effect. He couldn't let his trainer down though, not before, not now, not ever.

"Now use Ice Beam!" Petrel commanded.

Sneasel once again attempted a beam of ice and this time, directed straight towards Leaf's Sentret. Because of the time between attacks, Cyndaquil couldn't counter with his Ember and the Ice attack got a direct strike on the Shiny Pokémon.

Both Pokémon seemed to be on their last legs right now, each had been battling nonstop since the beginning when all of this commotion started. The wounds from battle were clearly visible, with fatigue and exhaustion slowly creeping up on the duo's Pokémon.

Petrel once again laughed out. "Hahaha! So what are you going to do now? Looks like your Pokémon are all worn out. Oh well. Sneasel, Ice Beam, once more!"

His Sharp-Claw Pokémon nodded and began powering up another Ice Beam when the trainers adjacent from him began encouraging their Pokémon.

"Come on Cyndaquil! You can't give up now! Please get up!"

"Sentret please, if you know what's right, you'll keep fighting! Never surrender!"

The fire and normal Pokémon both heard their trainers' words and knew they were right. They had been with them for almost four years now and they had never failed them and they sure weren't going to now.

Both struggled to stand and that's when both Pokémon started to glow a bright light, brighter than anyone had ever seen before. Every trainer in the room had to cover their eyes as it was too intense for them. What happened next was a memory that would forever be ingrained in the memories of Ash and Leaf. Incased in that bright light were two silhouettes that fully stood with authority. These shapes that had shown Cyndaquil and Sentret began to change shape as Cyndaquil became longer in size and had pointed ears sprouting out from his head.

Sentret, who was normally a bit bulky in nature, began growing longer and longer in length with her tail merging with her body and ears shifting from the pointed oval shape on the top of her head, to ears that seemed to go along more naturally with her body. Her arms also shifted from the sides of her body, to closer to her chest as they shrunk a bit.

Their trainers were watching in awe as they were finally watching what had been delayed so long for them. What should have happened ages ago had they had gone on their journey, was now happening in this very moment. As the rearrangements of their body finally finished, the light dispersed itself and now stood two Pokémon who looked fierce and ready for a fight.

Cyndaquil became Quilava and Sentret became Furret. All of the battling in the room stopped for those few precious moments when the light grew and grew in intensity and now that it had died down, everybody was standing there in utter awe at the bombshell that had just taken effect.

The scariest part of it all, according to Petrel, was that they had looked like they hadn't taken any damage whatsoever and were raring to go.

Quilava's flames flared out from his back as he spat out a great ball of fire that began hurriedly making its way towards Sneasel. It couldn't dodge it in time and was coated in a massive gulf of flames, but that wasn't all. Leaf's Furret began shouting with intensity towards Sneasel and he had to cover his ears from the pain he was receiving, even its trainer had to do so as well. You could actually see the sound waves emanating from the Long-Body Pokémon and they were relentless in their assault on the poor ice type.

Ash and Leaf pointed their X2 at the new moves they had just used and were astonished to know that they had learned Flame Burst and Hyper Voice respectively upon evolution. Both of which were very powerful attacks in their own right. The duo were proud of their Pokémon taking that next step into becoming the strongest they could possibly be.

The Rocket executive in front of them had so many emotions running through his face at the sight of the Pokémon in front of him. Shock, anger, frustration and a bit of fear from what the duo could tell. Though it was quite obvious that this was turning into a very bad day, very fast for Petrel.

Ash and Leaf knew they would have to celebrate their Pokémons' evolutions later as they were still in the heat of battle. They wanted to try out their new moves once more.

"Quilava, use Flame Burst!"

"Furret, use Hyper Voice!"

The Pink Shiny Pokémon once again began echoing an intense shout onto her enemy, once again sound waves visible. Quilava then carefully aimed his Flame Burst into the Sound Waves, which caused the Hyper Voice's sound waves to turn a deep orange color as they quickly made their way over to the ice type. Since Sneasel was still down on the ground, he couldn't dodge the attack in time and when he saw the Fire Blast, Hyper Voice combo headed straight for him, his eyes widened and tried his best to brace himself for impact, but it was all too late.

The velocity of the Hyper Voice, combined with the inferno that was the Flame Burst, knocked Sneasel back with such velocity that he flew fifty feet backwards and into the solid rock wall that was protecting him from flying off into oblivion. There was now a massive dent in the wall with a blue ice type unconscious with swirls in its eyes, signaling he was down for the count, and would be for a while.

Both Pokémon, and both trainers stood side-by-side through and through, and they were a united cohesive unit that would one day be unstoppable. The trainers looked towards their Pokémon, whom were looking back at them with passion and determination. Ash and Leaf nodded in approval and Quilava and Furret nodded back with a smile on all of their faces.

The duo then looked around and noticed the commotion was still everywhere around the room, though not as heavy as when they first started their battle with Sneasel. Elekid, Kaz and Gaige did a fantastic job at keeping any opponent, who so much as looked at their trainers, at bay. Depending on who you were asking, their opponents were getting kicked into walls, bit until they couldn't fight no more, or were shot at my thousands of tiny leaves, each leaving their mark. They were enjoying this battle so much, that they actually were keeping score as to who had the most knockouts. Elekid was winning so far.

Brock, Misty and Grayson were still doing alright all things considering, although not without setbacks. Brock's Geodude tapped out a bit of time ago, Misty's Shellder was overwhelmed by the Zubat, and Grayson's Bulbasaur couldn't take anymore so he was down for the count. That meant Brock still had Onix and Rhyhorn, Misty had Staryu and Grayson had Mankey left to fight.

There was only a few Zubat and a few Ekans left and they looked to be on their last legs. Brock then ordered his Rhyhorn to use Stone Edge to finish them off. Rhyhorn proceeded to stomp its feet onto the ground and pointed stones started making shape before the Spikes Pokémon slammed its own body onto the ground, thus making the stones fly into the air, knocking each and every Zubat out while Mankey, Elekid, Kaz and Gaige cleaned up the ground game by taking out the rest of the Ekans with their respective Karate Chop, Low Kick, Thunder Fang and Razor Leaf attacks.

One may have been wondering what happened with the hostages. Well, Katrina managed to get over to them and untie them all, but since there was so much commotion going on, they couldn't do anything as they had their Pokémon taken away for obvious reasons. They had all managed to duck behind the large wooden crates and that easily provided cover for the ten or so people that the Rockets had captured.

Petrel didn't think things couldn't get worse and so while all the trainers were still assessing the situation at hand and disarming the Rocket grunts, he tried to slip out of the room towards the exit.

He had almost made his escape until he found the same Quilava and Furret he had battled earlier along with their trainers, looking as though they were going to unleash their wrath had he taken another step. With a heavy sigh, he reluctantly put his hands up in surrender. The battle was over. **(3)**

A few seconds later, a female green haired officer came up behind him and cuffed him and spoke. "Petrel of Team Rocket. You are hereby under arrest for multiple accounts of Theft, Burglary, Kidnapping and Murder of Innocent Pokémon. You have the right to remain silent." She continued on with some other information that was important with the law.

The duo could see the other officers cuffing the other grunts, though Ash had remembered a duo of grunts that wore white, along with a Meowth and they sure weren't there. He figured they had escaped when all the chaos was going on.

Leaf had to backtrack for a moment, she had just heard "Murder of Innocent Pokémon." She knew Team Rocket was bad, but to go to such lows. She had to look for them just to be sure. She then spotted the crates and had that bad feeling rise up in her stomach once again. "Ash, come with me please."

He wondered what this was about, but went along anyway. He noticed Leaf was walking to the crates and wondered what was going on since he didn't pay attention to what Officer Jenny was saying. She spoke, "Help me get these crates open. There are Pokémon in here."

She then saw her Clefairy and noticed she was quite shaken at the events that just transpired. Viewing the battle from behind the cover she was in was a bit scary for her, but it also gave her some light as to what a strong Pokémon is all about. She wasn't scared of other Pokémon, but she was scared of the humans that tortured her.

Once Ash heard that, he reacted quick. "Elekid! Come here please!" He shouted out to his electric type, which came right over. "Get these crates open, there are Pokémon in there. Use Low Kick to kick them open if you need to."

Elekid didn't need to as he pried open the crates with miniscule amount of effort.

As soon as the tops of the wooden crates were off, dozens of Pokémon ranging from Sandshrew to Zubat to Paras to any other Pokémon that was native came crawling and flying out and were scattering throughout the cave, going to presumably their homes wherever that was.

Leaf noticed one crate off to the side that was slightly peculiar. She couldn't hear any noise from it and told Elekid to get it open. He kicked it open this time using Low Kick just for fun and that's when Leaf looked in.

"Oh my god!" Leaf shouted out and looked away very quickly and shielded Clefairy's eyes before she could look.

"What!? What is it?!" Ash wondered.

He walked up to the crate and that's when the sight horrified him. Inside of this crate in particular, were the remains of Pokémon that were once living and breathing creatures. All that remained was a foul stench. Dried up native species of the mountain lay in this crate and there was at least 8 of them. From what he could see, there were a few Zubat, a Geodude, a couple Sandshrew...and a Clefairy.

"Why?!" Leaf yelled out in a very strained voice.

Ash didn't even look for more than a couple moments, but he knew that these Pokémon were in real bad shape. All he needed to know was that they weren't breathing anymore, but he got a lot more than he bargained for when he viewed that horrifying and depressing sight.

The others heard what was happening and came over to see what was going on. Ash and Leaf just gave them a warning before walking away. The others looked confused before looking to the sacred crates and almost choked. Brock covered his eyes and looked as though he had just seen the worst sight he had ever witnessed, which it was. Grayson began spewing his guts out at the terrifying sight he had just witnessed and Misty along with Katrina began crying a little when they saw what was in that horrible crate. They knew they'd never be the same after what they saw in there.

A few officers came over to deal with that crate and blocked off access entirely, though not soon enough since the entire group saw what it was.

Clefairy had wondered what was in there, but Leaf shut her down right quick. "You don't want to know Clefairy, just trust me on this." She voiced out as a few droplets began leaking from her eyes.

Ash brought her in for a side embrace since Clefairy was still being held by his best friend. She looked at him with a look that said 'Take the pain away. Let me unsee what I just saw.' He then sat her down on a nearby rock and she just leaned her head on his right shoulder as she tried her best to hold back a sob. Leaf loved Pokémon very much, so to see the carnage that Team Rocket had done was too much for her in that moment.

She couldn't hold them back anymore as more tears starting raining down her face. That sight was one that would unfortunately be engraved in her mind forever, no matter how much she wanted to rid of it. Ash could feel his best friend's pain and almost cried with her, but had to stay strong. That sight wasn't easy on him or anybody else for that matter either. He just rubbed her back and tried to get Leaf to settle down a bit.

After Grayson was done throwing up his breakfast, he took a mini-bottle of mouthwash out of his pack he left by the wall and gargled its contents around in his mouth for a good minute or two before spitting it back out. He grunted, "Ugh. That. Was. Horrifying." He took a breath in between words.

"You could say that." The former Pewter Gym Leader was still rubbing his eyes, which were still closed for that matter. "That was the worst sight I've ever seen, by miles."

"I know all beings die and all, but goodness, they were murdered!" Grayson shouted out. He was really shook up still. He looked over to Katrina and saw her and Misty crying, obviously they weren't dealing with it any better than they were. He then looked for Ash and Leaf and he felt his heart constrict a bit. His two friends looked terrible over there. He wished he could help but figured it was best to leave them be for now.

He then looked for Officer Jenny and saw her commanding other officers on different things. He walked over and asked, "Officer Jenny?"

The teal-haired officer turned to him and greeted, "Hi there. Is there something you need?"

"Yeah uhh..." For once he didn't know exactly what to say.

"You want answers about **_that_** crate over there don't you?" She gestured towards the infamous crate.

"Kinda...but not really at the same time...I wish I hadn't seen that." Granted, he was ten, so this was staying with him for life.

"You didn't know. Team Rocket are menaces." She shook her head and looked down. "After Ash put the call in, we sent in a Search unit which consisted of myself and a few officers here. We got caught by surprise and they took all of our Pokémon and tied us up and we had to watch whatever they did..." She paused for a moment, thinking back.

"They killed those Pokémon in front of us because they weren't cooperating at all. They told them it was either get in those crates or suffer the consequences, and what you saw in there were those consequences."

Grayson had a wet-burp when he heard the story, but luckily didn't puke out his dinner. "O-O-Okay. I'll uhh, leave to your thing th-then." He finished as he walked over to a nearby rock and put his head in his hands. Officer Jenny offered the kids a ride to the other side of the mountain so they wouldn't have to trek through the caves again. It was offered as a token of appreciation and told them it was the least she could do. All of them just silently nodded without saying another word.

They all knew Pokémon came and went, same as humans, but the way they went out should never be how it happens. Ash and Leaf were still sitting on their boulder when a young man with dirty-blonde hair in black jeans, and a white shirt with a gray vest approached them.

"I didn't get to thank you yet." He stated as he stuck out his hand. "My name's Calvin."

Ash shook his hand, "I'm Ash, and this my best friend Leaf."

She sniffled and let out a weak, "Hi."

"Wait. Did you say Ash and Leaf?" Calvin questioned.

"Yeah. Why?"

Calvin took another good look at them before a revelation sparked in eye as he said. "Ah that's where I remember you from. You were the ones who came in that day when I got Chikorita. Professor Oak's junior researchers. Now I remember you!"

Leaf brightened up a bit, "That was around the time we caught Cyndaquil and Sentret. You were there the day we arrived. Along with that Silver guy."

His face contorted into one of...disgust maybe? "Ugh, don't get me started with Silver. He and I are polar opposites, I kid you not. The only thing we have in common is taking down Team Rocket. I don't exactly know his reasons, but I got mine."

"So your a trainer then?" Ash asked.

"Yep. I'm taking on the gym challenge right now. I was just at Cinnabar Island and figured I'd take the scenic route up through Pallet Town and Pewter to get to Saffron. I have four badges right now. That's how I landed here, though I have no clue why Silver is here in particular. He took off in a hurry."

Ash brightened up at that. "Hey, I'm taking on the gym challenge as well. Though I only have one badge since I just started."

Calvin just shrugged. "Everybody has to start somewhere. Though I do expect you to take on the Indigo League. I guess we'll do battle there."

Ash smiled. "It's a deal."

Calvin then parted ways with the duo and now they just sat there. Leaf still wasn't saying much, but she wasn't as bad as before so that was a plus.

It was then, that Seymour walked up to them, though he wasn't his happy and cheerful self. "I can't believe what Team Rocket has done to these poor Pokemon. It's not forgiveable."

Leaf shook her head. "If they did this here, I could only imagine what they do in other operations. Why do they do this? Why hurt innocent Pokemon?"

"Seymour does not know young one. My hypothesis, they were after the Moon Stone. Though that seems to remain a myth as of now."

Leaf just sat there, her head still on Ash's shoulder. That's when Ash asked, "So what are you going to do now Seymour?"

The scientist put his thumb to his chin and thought about it for moment. He lacked a clear destination at the moment. "I guess I'll head back to the Pewter Museum of Science for now. I told them I'd be back at some point."

"Tell Jack we said hi." Ash said. The scientist nodded and after a final goodbye, he walked back into the tunnels of Mount Moon, back to Pewter City.

Eventually, the group couldn't stand being in that room anymore, so they decided to head back to the Pokémon center they stayed in the night prior and just relax there, with Jenny picking them up tomorrow.

All of the Rockets were captured and jailed after this event...all except three.

Most of the jitters were shaken off, but it still lingered with our group. To distract themselves, the duo brought out their newly evolved Pokémon and took a good look at the progress they had achieved. Ash and Leaf let them know how proud of them they were and that this was still the beginning of it all.

There were no accounts of a Shiny Furret ever before, so when Leaf saw her that next time, she adored the pink color she had and squealed in excitement and Furret was loving it. She was glad she was able to please her trainer and would continue to do so. Only now she wouldn't be able to ride Leaf's shoulder anymore, as Furret was now technically bigger than Leaf, but it was alright.

Quilava flared the flames on his back when Ash called him out and the young man couldn't be happier for his fire type. The two of them had been working hard over the last few years together and their bond was all but unbreakable. They'd continue to get stronger united.

Since he had time now, Ash had called out the Zubat he had captured to get acquainted with it. Turns out it was a female Zubat that was looking for a trainer, but couldn't find one that wanted it. Ash had told her that with enough time, dedication and hard work, she could become the strongest of her species. This Zubat would hold him to that, but liked his ambitions.

Leaf actually still had Clefairy in her arms when she left the mountain since by the time they had left, the pink fairy had fallen asleep. Clefairy eventually woke up back in the Pokémon Center, with Leaf deep in thought. She looked around and noticed that she was now in a room with some beds and a door, but the only one currently occupying it was the human in front of her. As such, Clefairy casually hopped her way over to the one who put her mind at ease and tried to get her attention.

It worked as the brunette looked over to the pink fairy. "Oh, hi Clefairy. Have a good rest?"

"Clefairy." She said while nodding.

The pink fairy then thought about something for a moment before she spoke out her name once again and pointed to a Pokéball on Leaf's belt.

She raised her eyebrows and pulled out the Pokéball Clefairy was pointing at and wondered. "What is it? This is an empty Pokéball."

Clefairy snatched the Pokéball out of Leaf's hands and tried to pry it open and that's when Leaf got a bit worried. "Careful! That'll suck you in if you accidentally hit that button!"

That's all the information Clefairy needed to hear as she pressed the button in the middle of the Pokéball and her body glowed a red hue before becoming encapsulated in the red and white ball.

It didn't even shake before signaling that Clefairy had been caught. Leaf just stared in amusement and looked stunned at what just happened. She hadn't figured that Clefairy wanted to come with her, but was going to welcome her all the same. After that, she just grabbed the Pokéball and said, "Welcome."

* * *

 **And CUT! Wow, I actually got a chapter done that didn't take a million years to finish, I'm pretty proud of it. In my opinion, this was one of my better chapters, as I really thought out everything here. I'm still on the fence about the Rocket battle, but only a little bit. I'm gonna lay this out there, when I started this chapter, I originally didn't intend for Leaf to capture Clefairy, not kidding. But as I progressed with it, I essentially backed myself into a corner and it would have been a crime for Leaf NOT to catch it, so there we go!**

 **I WANT YOUR OPINIONS ON THIS.**

 **REVIEW!**

 **REVIEW!**

 **REVIEW!**

 **I can't stress it enough when I only had one person review my last chapter. I want some good ones, constructive criticism on what I can do better; like I said, I love this kind of stuff from people. I'm just glad we're finally getting in to the knitty gritty of this story and I'm just giving you guys a taste at to how things are gonna go.**

 **How do you like my interpretation of Team Rocket and their sadistic ways? How do you like the route I took with Mount Moon? Too dark? Not enough? Let me know!**

 **Also thanks for 100 follows! And we're almost at 70 favorites, that's amazing! Also, we just hit 5,000 views! If it wasn't so late over here, I'd be singing for joy, even though my vocal chords make my singing voice sound a dump-truck backing up and with the sounds of "WEE-WOO! WEE-WOO! WEE-WOO!"**

 **Yeah I'm weird.**

 **Until next time!**

 **-MidnightJD**

 **Edit 5/28/2018 - Various revisions**


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